Global Economics-21

Frankfurt's city streets may not be the best for testing cars, yet accelerating between the traffic lights in a Tesla offers a powerful insight into the electric future that most players in the motor industry are raving about.

Tesla says its new electric roadster accelerates from 0-100 kilometres (0-60 miles) per hour in four seconds and can go on cruising for almost 400 kilometres.

Plans are under way to bring electric cars to the masses, however, with most carmakers at the Frankfurt motor show displaying concepts to illustrate how they see the future.

"The electric car will account for 10% of the global market in 10 years," predicts Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of alliance partners Renault and Nissan in a BBC interview. "It is time for zero emission motoring."

Renault-Nissan are investing some 4bn euros in its electric vehicle programme, where some 2,000 engineers and development staff work to make the firm the world leader in this area, observes Global Insight analyst Tim Urquhart.

"Renault is basically betting the future of the company on its bold electric passenger car strategy," he says.

Silicon Valley is stirring back to life, following a bruising economic downturn, according to industry insiders and start-up entrepreneurs.

The view seems to underscore Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's belief that the US recession has ended.

He told a Washington think-tank that "from a technical perspective the recession is very likely over".

Wall Street shares that optimism - with the Dow Jones having been on a steady rise for the last six months.

"In the Valley we are seeing real signs of life," said Satish Dharmaraj, a partner with Redpoint Ventures, a firm specialising in internet start-ups.

"We are seeing an enormous amount of really good companies coming up and good people leaving their jobs and joining start-ups, which is always a sign of confidence," Mr Dharmaraj told BBC News.

Recent acquisitions in the hi-tech field include the purchase of Mint.com by Intuit for $170m (Â£102m), Adobe buying Omniture for $1.8bn (Â£1.08bn), the sale of Skype to a private equity syndicate for $2bn (Â£1.2bn) and the purchase of SpringSource by VMware for $420m (Â£254m).

"Looks like the economy, and with it the urge to splurge, is back - especially in Silicon Valley," said Om Malik of tech blog Gigaom.com.

"What's even more encouraging is that none of these deals are the small micro - transactions that Silicon Valley got used to over the past few years," he added. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8258119.stm>

Scientists say they are a step closer to curing colour blindness using gene therapy.

A US team were able to restore full colour vision to adult monkeys born without the ability to distinguish between the colours red and green.

Nature journal describes the technique used by the researchers at the University of Washington.

In Chicago, some of the city's most deprived neighbourhoods see more than their fair share of violence, with shootings an everyday occurrence.

Such areas are also home to a sub-culture of dog fighting, part of the estimated 40,000 people involved in the illegal activity across the US.

Tio Hardiman, from the United States Humane Society's End Dog Fighting Campaign, grew up in an inner city neighbourhood in Chicago.

He has first-hand knowledge of the street dog fighting culture in Chicago's South Side and West Side.

Mr Hardiman now works with former dog fighters, arranging training sessions for local pitbull owners to see dogs as loyal pets, rather than fighters.

One of the former dog fighters working on Mr Hardiman's campaign team is Sean Moore.

He admits that his actions during 13 years of dog fighting led to many animals being destroyed.

"Fighting them, preparing them to fight and once the fight was over, I killed them. I saw a lot of guys hang their dogs for hours and that's like torture. More often than not I would shoot my dogs, just to get it over with," he says.

Mr Moore also says it is not unusual for children to become involved from an early age.

The practise of cutting ears is known as the "fight cut" and is done to encourage the dogs to go straight for the neck, rather than biting off the ears.

"I used to fight dogs in the back of buildings and abandoned garages. I went through almost 100 dogs, fighting them, just doing what I wanted to do with them, for no apparent reason," says the boy, who calls his current dog Tiger.

If their subsequent injuries turned out to be too severe, he would leave them on the ground, the boy says.

Some dogs were picked up by the police, or he would tie a dog to a tree and walk away.

According to Mr Hardiman, there are three levels of progression in dog fighting.

Local children begin by staging dog fights on street corners to improve their standing in the community.

If their dogs emerge as winners, the children will appear tough and other people will be less likely to mess with them.

At the next level, money begins to change hands. "Anywhere between $500 and $2500," says Mr Hardiman, and the dogs are "trained to become ultimate fighters."

At the final, more professional level, dog fights are more organised and involve inter-state travel and dog fighting kennels, yielding earnings of up to $100,000. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8255660.stm>

The European planemaker Airbus has raised its forecast for new aircraft demand over the next 20 years.

It predicted global demand for 25,000 new aircraft across the industry between 2009 and 2029, up from the 24,262 it forecast for 2007 to 2027.

It also said that passenger numbers would fall by 2% this year but rise 4.6% next year.

Its rival Boeing predicted in June that 29,000 new planes would be ordered between 2009 and 2029.

Airbus said that demand for aircraft would be resilient to economic upturns and downturns.

"Air transportation is a growth industry and an essential ingredient in the world economy," said John Leahy from Airbus.

He added that the growth of low-cost airlines would be a factor in future growth.

Speaking after the Airbus briefing, Tim Coombs from the consultancy Aviation Economics said "making 20 year forecasts about anything is a big leap".

"I found it slightly surprising that the figure was up on last year given that we are in a recession," he added.

AMR, the parent of American Airlines, has raised $2.9bn (Â£1.8bn) of new financing to help it through the global downturn in air travel.

The group said $1bn of the total came from advanced sales of frequent flyer miles to Citigroup bank.

A further $1.6bn came from a sale and leaseback arrangement with General Electric's aviation division for planes it had already ordered.

Citigroup has effectively bought air miles in advance with which it can reward its customers when they use the bank's credit cards.

"Today's announcement positions our company well to face today's industry challenges and allows us to remain focused on the future and on returning to profitability," said AMR chairman Gerard Arpey.

He added a note of caution, however, saying that the airline "cannot borrow its way to prosperity".

Reports also suggest that American Airlines is in discussions with Japan Airlines about taking a stake in the troubled Japanese carrier.

"In one fell swoop, American Airlines has raised its game and put itself back in the thrust of gaining a competitive advantage against a backdrop of weak airline travel demand," said Saj Ahmad, airline analyst at the Gerson Lehrman Group.

"The real question now is how long will we wait before we see them make a move on Japan Airlines - today's news is almost certainly a precursor to that." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8261227.stm>

Angela Merkel was once criticised for looking dowdy and lacking charisma, but now the "Merkel factor" is considered her key asset as she seeks re-election as German chancellor, writes the BBC's Tristana Moore in Berlin.

Angela Merkel's face is everywhere these days, from billboards to newspapers and TV talk shows.

With the German federal election on 27 September fast approaching, conservative campaign managers are pinning their hopes on the Merkel factor to reach out to undecided voters.

After four years as head of the grand coalition, Angela Merkel has emerged as Germany's most popular politician, well ahead of her Social Democrat (SPD) challenger, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Merkel has transformed her dour, staid appearance, sporting a new hair-do and wearing bright-coloured jackets.

"Some people said Angela Merkel was boring and provincial, but they underestimated her," said Detmar Doering, the head of the Liberal Institute in Potsdam.

Mr Doering says Mrs Merkel does not need to rely on charisma to win over voters, because she is a pragmatic politician who inspires confidence.

"German voters aren't stupid - they don't want a Britney Spears as the chancellor of Germany, they want a serious leader whom they can trust. Merkel knows what she's doing."

The Iranian president has said his country sees no need for nuclear weapons, while insisting Iran will not abandon its pursuit of nuclear energy.

In an interview with US network NBC Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not explicitly rule out the possibility that Iran would acquire nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, Iranian security forces were on alert ahead of an annual rally expected to draw opposition leaders.

The opposition figures, who reject Mr Ahmadinejad's re-election in June, have called on their supporters to turn out in large numbers at the Quds, or Jerusalem, Day rally, which is being held in support of the Palestinian cause.

Thomas Brause used to earn a six-figure salary working as a trader in a gleaming Frankfurt tower. Now he sells sausages on the street outside.

"My friends and family said: 'You're crazy'," he said. "But they also said: 'Go for it!'"

His stand is a converted bus that he bought on eBay. In front of it, office workers and labourers from a building site opposite chat over Bratwurst and French fries on white cardboard trays.

When Thomas looks up, he sees the skyscraper where he worked until the world financial crash arrived.

"I was working for an American brokers with offices all around the globe," he said. "It ended on 10 December 2008 - a Wednesday. The Friday before we'd had our Christmas party. Our bosses had come out from London to celebrate with us.

"The Wednesday started normally, but then at 1100 an e-mail came round from human resources. By 1400 we were out the door."

At first, Thomas tried sending his CV to get similar jobs. But in a changed market, he was offered around half his previous salary. So he hit upon his radical change of direction.

"I'd first got the idea when I was working in the office," he said. "I'd think: hmm, lunch wasn't up to much this afternoon. I could really use a good German Currywurst with chips." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8263557.stm>

After a long and at times acrimonious session, Argentina's Chamber of Deputies this week passed a new media law proposed by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

More than 100 opposition lawmakers stormed out in protest at the bill, which comes amid an ongoing tussle between the presidency and one of the largest media groups in Latin America, Grupo Clarin.

President Fernandez has said her aim is to get rid of a hated media law from the military era, and establish a new regulatory framework for the media.

She argues that the new law will increase competition, allowing smaller players more access to frequencies and restricting the number of licences granted to dominant media players.

But critics have questioned President Fernandez's intentions, as the law, if it is also passed by the Senate, is likely to curb Clarin's influence and force the group to divest itself of some of its interests. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8261278.stm>

The US Justice Department has urged a New York court to reject a deal that would allow internet company Google to publish millions of books online.

The deal raised copyright and anti-trust issues, the department said, and should be rejected in its current form.

Under the deal - the product of a legal suit - Google would establish a $125m (£77m) fund to compensate those whose works it published online.

It would establish a Book Rights Registry so that authors whose work it digitised were paid when their material was viewed online.

The deal was agreed in October 2008 with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) after they sued Google for copyright infringement.

Two German ships have become the first Western commercial vessels to navigate the Northeast Passage - a shipping route which goes from Asia to Europe around the Russian Arctic.

One of the captains told the BBC that their journey opened new, exciting possibilities for the whole international shipping community.

Valeriy Durov, shipmaster of The Beluga Foresight, is your archetypal captain: a short man with a big moustache and a sense of great authority in his voice.

"I was slightly surprised by what we saw," he told us as we stood on the bridge of his cargo lifter.

"There was virtually no ice on most of the route. Twenty years ago, when I worked in the eastern part of the Arctic, I couldn't even imagine something like this.

"I think it will soon be possible to navigate the Northeast Passage all year round. We were escorted by an ice-breaker but, frankly, we could have done without it. This is great news for our industry."

Mr Durov's ship had just arrived in Arkhangel, a major sea port in north-western Russia. It was met by a cold, unpleasant drizzle and grey autumnal skies.

The numerous potholes on the port's berths had turned into deep puddles. To get to the mooring wall, you had to jump over them, navigating around endless stacks of pipes, wood planks and containers rather like a character in an old-fashioned computer game.

The Russian republic of Tuva situated in the far south of Siberia is one of the remotest spots on earth, but now there is talk of building a railway. Angela Robson has been to Tuva, where there are fears that this could ruin a unique way of life.

At around 0300 the temperature in the yurt plummets and the wind begins to howl.

A young nomadic woman, who had earlier tucked me into my makeshift bed on the floor, snores loudly in my ear.

We are in the high steppes, in the remote province of Erzin Kozhuun in southern Tuva, close to the Mongolian border.

Under a pile of blankets in one corner of the yurt is a holy man, a shaman. Asleep, he seems a shadow of the creature who at midnight, his face obscured by an elaborate feathered headdress, had lit a fire on the forested slopes outside, calling to sky spirits and beating a frenzied rhythm on his drum. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8254398.stm>

Citrulline is an organic compound which affects the body's blood vessels in the same way as the sex enhancement pills.

It helps relax the blood vessels which means blood gets around the body more easily.

Dr Bhimu Patil led the research. He said: "We've always known that watermelon is good for you, but the list of its very important healthful benefits grows longer with each study.

"Watermelon may not be as organ specific as Viagra... but it's a great way to relax blood vessels without any drug side-effects."

The pound has fallen to its lowest level since April against the euro after a warning that UK public debt levels may not be sustainable.

The Bank of England cautioned that foreign investors may not be as willing to purchase UK assets, thus hurting the pound's long-term exchange rate.

The pound fell as low as 1.1016 euros, and fell to $1.6134 against the dollar, its weakest in almost three weeks.

The fall in the value of the pound against the euro has sparked renewed talk of parity between the two currencies.

"We were here last October and we headed down to parity against the euro by Christmas. I think we are going the same way again," Mark O'Sullivan from Currencies Direct told the BBC.

In its quarterly bulletin, the Bank of England noted that the UK had run current account deficits for more than a decade - sustainable as long as the deficit was offset by foreign investors' purchases of UK financial assets.

"But the financial crisis may have led overseas investors to reassess their willingness or ability to purchase sterling assets and thereby finance the UK trade deficit," the Bank of England said.

"As a result, the long-run sustainable real sterling exchange rate... may have fallen."

On Friday, official figures showed UK's public sector net borrowing totalled £16.1bn last month.

The government's overall debt now stands at £804.8bn, or 57.5% of GDP, an increase of £172bn in the past year.

The massively increased levels of debt are due to the government bailing out troubled banks and its efforts to stimulate the economy during the recession.

Landlocked Rwanda is weeks away from completing a link to a new fibre-optic network promising high-speed internet for East Africa, officials say.

Engineers expect the capital, Kigali, to be connected to newly-arrived undersea cables in Kenya by November.

The new link is the key part of a plan to transform Rwanda from an impoverished, agricultural society into a hi-tech economic innovator.

Most of Rwanda's nine million inhabitants still make a living from small-scale farming, and much of the country remains without basic services - including a reliable electricity supply.

Yet 15 years after a genocide, which saw around 800,000 Rwandans brutally murdered, the government - led by one-time rebel leader President Paul Kagame - appears determined to push ahead with development on multiple fronts.

Rwanda remains one of the poorest countries in the world, but has a fast-growing population, of which more than 50% are aged 14 or under.

"We're in a hurry," Patrick Nyirishema told the BBC. "In five or 10 years' time, all those people are going to be looking for jobs."

Mr Nyirishema, a slight man of 34, took up his post at the helm of Rwanda's Information Technology Authority just one week ago. He found 160 ongoing projects in his in-tray.

"Rwanda is the most densely-populated country in the continent, and most of our people are subsistence farmers," he said.

"We can't wait until we have water, until we have built roads, before we get round to ICT (information and communications technology). We have to do everything at the same time." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8266290.stm>

University students in the UK should pay more for their loans and accept higher tuition fees as "inevitable", says a report from business leaders.

The Confederation of British Industry says the extra money needed to fund universities should come from savings in the student support system.

The National Union of Students attacked the report as "gross hypocrisy" from the "fat cats at the CBI".

In England, the government is set to launch a major review of the funding of higher education and student fees.

Higher education minister for England, David Lammy, said the government was committed to investing in "our world class system" and to the aspiration for 50% of young people to go to university.

The report from its higher education task force looks at the options for funding universities.

The CBI says that higher education is vital to the economic future and it rejects options such as slashing teaching budgets and cutting student numbers.

"Instead, we say that savings should come from the student support system," said the CBI's director general, Richard Lambert.

This would mean reducing the subsidy on student loans, more means-testing of support and the hiking of tuition fees above the current levels of £3,225 per year in England and Northern Ireland and £1,285 in Wales.

The report also says universities should focus more on economically valuable subjects such as science, technology, engineering, maths and languages.

And it calls for the dropping of the ambition for 50% of young people to go to university.

"At a time of economic crisis, when many hard-working families are struggling to support their offspring through university, I am astonished that the CBI should be making such offensive recommendations," said NUS president, Wes Streeting. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8263672.stm>

The future global burden of Alzheimer's and other types of dementia has been underestimated, say UK experts.

A report from King's College London suggests more than 115 million people across the globe will suffer from dementia by 2050.

This prediction is 10% more than previous figures published in 2005, driven mainly by new figures from South Asia and Latin America.

The rise in dementia fuelled by increasing life expectancies in countries around the world is causing widespread concerns.

The strain of caring for people with dementia is not just a social issue, but an economic one, placing a growing burden on the working population and health systems.

The King's College London research, part of the 2009 World Alzheimer's Report, published by Alzheimer's Disease International, estimates that there will be 35 million people worldwide with dementia by next year.

The head of oil giant Total has told the BBC the world could face a shortage of oil because of underinvestment.

Chief executive Christophe de Margerie warned that too little has been spent trying to tap into new oil reserves because of the economic crisis.

"If we don't move [now] there will be a problem," Mr de Margerie said. "In two or three years it will be too late."

He also said he thought oil prices would rise to more than $100 a barrel, from their current level of around $70.

"The reserves of oil are there, but if you don't invest they don't come on the market," Mr de Margerie said.

"What we have to decide today is production for 2010-2015. So in between we might be faced with insufficient oil to meet demand."

He said the major oil producing countries, which have cut production in the face of falling demand and to protect prices, could not be blamed for the underinvestment.

"You cannot ask those countries who are also facing a crisis to continue to invest for a potential recovery of demand, and to do this for the benefit of the world."

Computer giant Dell is buying IT services provider and fellow Texan firm Perot Systems for $3.9bn (£2.4bn).

Dell said the takeover, which it hopes to conclude between November and January, will help it provide a wider range of services to its customers.

The all-cash deal will see Perot shareholders receive $30 per share, a 68% premium on the company's closing share price on Friday.

"We consider Perot Systems to be a premium asset with great people that enhances our opportunities for immediate and long-term growth," said Dell's chairman and chief executive.

"This significantly expands Dell's enterprise-solutions capabilities and makes Perot Systems' strengths available to even more customers around the world," Michael Dell added.

While Perot specialises in IT support for the likes of hospitals, government departments, and banks, Dell is best known for its personal computers.

Mr Perot said the sale was a "great opportunity" for his company, which he founded in 1988.

Mr Dell said the "the acquisition makes such great sense because of the obvious ways our businesses complement each other".

The takeover news comes a month after Dell reported that its second quarter profit fell 23% from a year earlier to $12.8bn, as it continued to be hit by the global slowdown in sales of personal computers. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8267054.stm>

Mobile providers have said that US proposals to ensure all traffic on the internet is treated equally should not be applied to wireless traffic.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants rules to prevent providers blocking or slowing down bandwidth-heavy usage such as streaming video.

Providers claim a two-tiered system is essential for the future vitality of the net.

In his first major speech since his appointment earlier in the summer, he told an audience in Washington that the rules were "not about government regulation of the internet".

"History's lesson is clear. Ensuring a robust and open internet is the best thing we can do to promote investment and innovation," he told the audience at Washington think tank the Brookings Institution.

"And while there are some who see every policy decision as either pro-business or pro-consumer, I reject that approach; it's not the right way to see technology's role in America."

The FCC's proposals are meant to ensure that internet service providers cannot block or slow down traffic, such as bandwidth-hogging video downloads. Operators must also be transparent about network management, it said.

When the G20 leaders gather in Pittsburgh, aside from all the talk of economic recovery and regulation of the banks, one of the key topics will be reforming the way the world economy is governed.

The world financial crisis has made it clear that, although we have a globalised world economy, there is no clear way governments can work together to solve global economic problems.

But the lack of co-ordination, both now and in the future, could mean a deeper and longer global recession with more unemployment and poverty around the world.

The G20, an ad-hoc grouping of the world's major economies, has stepped in and performed a major role during the past year.

But the crisis has also spurred efforts to reform the existing global financial institutions, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which were set up at the end of World War II to help revive the battered global economy and whose job it is to lend to countries in trouble.

Countries contribute funds to the IMF according to the size of their economies, and they then receive voting rights based on their contributions.

But the current voting structure does not reflect the rise of powerful new economies like China and India, which are leading the world out of recession even while growth collapses in Europe and the US.

And a row has broken out between the US and China on the one hand, and Europe on the other, over how much voting rights should be changed.

Although all sides have pledged to come up with solutions by January 2011, there are significant practical problems.

European countries, which make up 25% of the world economy, hold 40% of the votes. The US, which makes up another 25% of the world economy, only holds 17% of the voting rights.

But under IMF rules, all major decisions require a majority of 85%, making the US the only individual country that can block any decision.

The US and China have proposed that European countries give up 5% to 7% of their quota in order to provide more votes to the emerging economies.

But smaller European countries, such as the Netherlands and Sweden, are reluctant to give up their seats on the 24-member IMF board.

Even the UK is resisting immediate pressures for reform. A UK Treasury official told the BBC that, as Europe had made the biggest contribution to renewing IMF funds (lending over $150bn of the $500bn asked for), now was not the time to ask it to reduce its authority. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8253987.stm>

Oracle head Larry Ellison says his firm is losing $100m (£61.2m) every month while it waits for the verdict of an EU probe into a planned takeover deal.

The business software firm has proposed a $7.4bn takeover of computer hardware and software maker Sun Microsystems.

In August, the US Justice Department gave its approval to the deal, agreed between the two firms in April.

"The longer this takes, the more money Sun is going to lose," Mr Ellison told an audience in Silicon Valley.

This week sees a series of meetings that could create the right conditions for achieving a new global treaty on climate change. In the Green Room this week, three senior political figures from Latin America - Jose Maria Figueres, Juan Mayr and Marina Silva - argue that middle-income nations such as theirs are leading the way. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8268022.stm>

This week's G20 summit in the US will call for major reforms to promote a more balanced global economy, according to a document seen by the BBC.

A draft paper hints at significant policy changes from G20 countries, including the UK, the US and China.

And while stimulus packages should continue for now, the document called for the creation of "transparent and credible" means to unwind that support.

If this does not happen, the world will "face anaemic growth" at levels that are "unacceptably low", it says.

However the paper does not suggest any mechanism for enforcing its plans - other than countries coming under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

And while no countries are mentioned by name, BBC business correspondent Joe Lynam says the document is suggesting that rich indebted countries, such as Britain and the US, should save more while cautious and savings-oriented nations such as Germany and China increase spending.

The document is ambitious, our business correspondent adds, and is aimed at removing some of the wild economic swings that have marked the opening decade of the 21st Century.

There have long been calls for China to allow its currency, the yuan, to rise, encouraging Chinese consumers to spend more on foreign goods.

But others argue that in the longer term, China should work on improving pensions, healthcare and other policies, to reduce the incentive people have to save so much. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8268009.stm>

Guatemala has been hit by severe food shortages, with some 54,000 families living in the east of the country facing a critical situation.

President Alvaro Colom last week declared a "state of public calamity" to try to mobilise funding to tackle severe food shortages in the country.

Lida Escobar is a field monitor for the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) in Guatemala. She has been sending her experiences on the situation there to BBCMundo.com. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8254841.stm>

The US regulator has confirmed it will sue Bank of America over charges that it misled investors about bonuses when it acquired Merrill Lynch.

Bank of America saved Merrill from collapse at the height of the financial crisis, after saying no bonuses would be paid without shareholder approval.

Separately, Bank of America announced several new measures to reduce its reliance on US aid.

It will pay $425m to cancel unused federal guarantees against losses at Merrill from government agencies, including the US Treasury.

Bank of America received a total of $45bn from the taxpayer-financed $700bn bail-out programme. The US government has a minority holding in the bank.

But the bank is now seeking to exit the bail-out programme, which puts restrictions on executive pay, dividends and capital spending.

The bonus case concerns whether Bank of America failed to disclose to shareholders that it had authorised Merrill to pay up to $5.8bn in bonuses to its employees in 2008, even though the investment bank lost $27.6bn that year.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it would "vigorously pursue" its case against Bank of America over those bonuses.

Bank of America spokesman Scott Silvestri said: "We intend to vigorously defend ourselves in court."

Bank of America had agreed to pay a $33m fine to settle charges that it misled investors about bonuses when it acquired Merrill Lynch in January. The bank neither admitted nor denied the SEC allegations.

District Judge Jed Rakoff called the proposed settlement a breach of "justice and morality" and ordered a trial.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak has offered North Korea a "grand bargain" - giving up its nuclear plans for aid and security guarantees.

Separate meetings between US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and foreign ministers from South Korea and Japan stressed the need for caution.

"We must have a comprehensive and integrated approach to fundamentally resolve the North Korea nuclear issue," Mr Lee said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

He criticised the approach of past six-nation talks on North Korea - between North and South Korea, the US, China, Japan and Russia - as doing little but rewarding the country's bad behaviour.

"We compensated [the North Koreans] for agreeing to freeze their programme, and we compensated them for not keeping their promises," Mr Lee said.

Analysts say that his comments will reinforce his image as a hardliner, reviled by the North.

But his proposal still follows the general outline of the 2007 six-nation agreement, under which North Korea would halt its nuclear programme in return for badly-needed oil and security guarantees.

Earlier this year North Korea pulled out of talks on implementing this agreement, in protest at international criticism over a series of rocket launches.

In recent weeks, however, North Korea has signalled a new openness to the possibility of resuming talks.

Speaking after Mrs Clinton's talks with north Asian foreign ministers, the US envoy for the Koreas, Kurt Campbell, said the US currently favoured a cautious approach.

"The point that we tried to make was how careful we need to be at this juncture," Mr Campbell said.

"What we're trying to get is the North Koreans to make small, but fundamental steps so that we can at least take some early actions going forth," he said.

He expressed hope for progress when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visits North Korea in October.

Stephen Taban spent two years fighting for the LRA. The 20-year-old does not need time to think about which parts were the worst.

"Killing people and catching the kids," he says, looking down at the ground as he speaks.

He knows what terror that caused: he was conscripted after being snatched from his family's farm in southern Sudan.

But if the jungle rebels failed to return with food and fresh recruits, commanders would burn them on the back with red-hot metal from a fire.

The fighters - whose leaders originate in northern Uganda - have earned a grim reputation for murder, rape and abducting children.

Mutilating victims, including hacking off noses and lips, is one of their trademark calling cards.

Mr Taban escaped in June, running away through the thick forests and swamps that the guerrillas hide in.

He still wears the green T-shirt with a Ugandan army logo given to him after he surrendered.

Ironically, it was the Ugandan army that the LRA leadership began fighting two decades ago - although the rebels have long since shifted northwards.

Moving in small groups, the machete-wielding rebels now menace a wide region across southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic, dragging in recruits from several nations.

The UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Sudan, Ameerah Haq, said there was "grave concern" at "escalating attacks".

"Many innocent people are losing their lives every week," she says, speaking during a visit to Yambio, capital of the hard-hit Western Equatoria state.

Rebels raided just three miles outside Yambio earlier this month, while aid workers had to be airlifted by helicopter out of the remote town of Ezo after attacks in August, shutting down international aid efforts there.

"The United Nations is very concerned about the killing, abduction, maiming and displacement of innocent civilians," Ms Haq said.

Many of the attacks targeted the food provided by international aid agencies, she said, warning that greater security efforts were needed.

There are just 200 UN peacekeepers in Western Equatoria, with forces already stretched tackling separate conflicts elsewhere in southern Sudan. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8259039.stm>

The classic computer space-trading game Elite has celebrated its 25th anniversary.

Elite was released on 20 September 1984 for the BBC Microcomputer and was one of the first games to use 3D graphics.

Many developers regard the title as the forerunner of many modern games and have described it as a "milestone".

David Braben, who co-developed Elite, confirmed that his company, Frontier Developments, were working on a sequel to the game.

"We'd be mad not to go back to the world of Elite and I'm very excited about it," he told BBC News.

However, he would not be drawn on a possible release date saying it would happen "when its ready".

The original game was co-developed by Mr Braben and Ian Bell and was an overnight hit, selling hundreds of thousands of copies and influencing game development for years.

Elite was one of the first open-ended games, spanning eight vast universes, where the only real goal was to increase a player's reputation rating from "Harmless" to "Elite".

Mr Braben said that they never set out to write a commercial game, but wrote something that they themselves would want to play.

"This was a game we wrote many years ago for an ancient computer called the BBC Micro.

"We did this while we were at university and never expected it to be popular, let alone such a life-changing event," he added.

Ian Livingstone, creative director at games firm Eidos, said Elite was a "milestone in gaming history".

"This was one of the premier British titles that put UK development on the map and was very influential in inspiring people to get into gaming," he told BBC News. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8261272.stm>

One of the busiest border crossings between the US and Mexico was closed for hours after a gun battle between US agents and suspected human traffickers.

Four people were injured at the San Ysidro crossing after the agents fired shots to stop three vans from storming across the border, US officials say.

The San Ysidro crossing is known as a major smuggling corridor for drugs and illegal immigrants.

US officials say the gun battle took place on Tuesday afternoon when the suspected human traffickers in three vans tried to storm past border agents at the congested crossing between the US city of San Diego and Mexico's Tijuana.

The agents then opened fire to stop the vans. However, some reports say the smugglers shot first at the agents - across lines of traffic at the crossing.

Three people in the vans and a motorist were injured, US officials say. The incident is being investigated by the San Diego police.

The northbound lanes were shut down for several hours, creating a massive traffic jam at the crossing.

Some 40,000 vehicles enter California every day at San Ysidro - one of the busiest ports of entry along the entire border between Mexico and the US. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8270147.stm>

Iranian police have warned shopkeepers not to display female mannequins without a hijab, or showing bodily curves, Irna news agency reports.

Display of bow ties and neckties, and the sale of women's underwear by men are also banned, the police said.

The move is part of a crackdown on Western influences and enforcement of dress codes in recent years.

"Un-Islamic behaviour" has been targeted since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's first election in 2005.

"Using unusual mannequins exposing body curves and with heads without hijabs [Muslim veils] are prohibited to be used in the shops," police said in a statement carried by Irna.

Correspondents say that in the past such campaigns usually only lasted throughout the summer, but last year's crackdown, including on tight trousers for women, was still continuing in the winter.

French police have moved in to dismantle a makeshift camp set up by migrants near the port of Calais.

Most of the illegal immigrants are Afghans trying to enter the United Kingdom.

Intel has said it is looking forward to its day in court when its appeal against a record fine imposed by EU anti-trust regulators is heard.

This week the European Commission published data to support its case against the American chip maker.

It detailed evidence from Intel clients that led to a $1.45bn fine for illegally shutting out rival AMD.

"I can't wait to get our side of the story out in the public," Intel President Paul Otellini told the BBC.

"I continue to believe and assert they (the European Commission) have got it wrong. We have appealed and we will win on appeal," said Mr Otellini following his keynote address at the company's annual developer forum in San Francisco.

In May the European Commission, the European Union's executive, ruled that Intel had paid computer makers to postpone or scrap plans to launch products using AMD's chips, given illegal rebates and paid a retailer to stock only computers with Intel chips.

AMD first filed a formal complaint with the European Commission against Intel in 2000, in what it alleged where anti-trust practices.

It was not until July 2007, following high-profile raids on Intel offices, that the company was formally charged with breaches of competition rules.

This week the Commission published a 518-page document that detailed its case that resulted in $1bn fine.

Among the emails and company records was one communication from US computer firm Dell in 2003.

According to the EU's findings, it noted that Intel's retaliation "could be severe and prolonged with impact to all lines of business" if Dell were to start buying chips from Intel competitor AMD.

An email from an executive of Chinese high-tech giant Lenovo was also cited in the EU decision which spoke of Intel's "naked restrictions" on business partners.

"Late last week Lenovo cut a lucrative deal with Intel. As a result of this, we will not be introducing AMD-based products in 2007 for our Notebook products," the December 2006 email said.

Europe's top competition watchdog had charged Intel with using illegal loyalty rebates to squeeze rivals out of the market for central processing units which are described as the brains inside personal computers.

Intel has defended such rebates, arguing that computer makers approach the company looking for price reductions.

"With the publication of this decision, you can see for yourselves precisely the facts on which the decision was based and how Intel broke the law," EU Commission spokesman Jonathon Todd told reporters in Brussels.

Intel has challenged the ruling and following the publication of these documents went on the offensive.

"They (EU prosecutors) have consistently ignored information that would have painted an entirely different story about those memos.

"We are precluded from releasing our own documents, which I thought was a bit unfair," said Mr Otellini. "In the Intel case I think they have certainly overstepped."

Eight alleged hijackers of the Russian ship the Arctic Sea were in fact welcomed on board after being rescued in the Baltic Sea, a lawyer claims.

Konstantin Baranovsky, who represents one of the eight men, said the alleged pirates were testing a navigation system on a small boat.

The eight were arrested in mid-August by the Russian navy and taken to Moscow to face kidnapping and piracy charges.

According to Mr Baranovsky, the eight men were welcomed on board the Arctic Sea, as they were Russians, like the ship's crew.

There were many more parties after that first night as the boat continued its voyage from the Baltic Sea through the English Channel and out into the Atlantic Ocean, Mr Baranovsky said.

Their ill-fated venture had apparently begun on the morning of 24 July when they set off from the coast of Estonia in a Zodiac inflatable boat.

Mr Baranvosky's client Dmitri Bartenev told him they were testing out a navigation system before starting environmental work off the Estonian coast.

Mr Bartenev explicitly instructed his lawyer not to reveal the name of the boat's owner to the media.

"It is important for this case as the owner can tell the truth about what Dmitri and the seven others were doing at sea," said Mr Baranovsky.

As they headed out into the Baltic Sea they say they were hit by bad weather which damaged the navigation system.

They lost their way and were eventually rescued by the crew of the Arctic Sea after night had fallen.

The eight men, now facing prison sentences of more than 20 years, say they were also given access to a small gym and swimming pool on board the boat as they sailed towards Africa.

But their free cruise in the sun was marred by increasing concerns about where they were going and why they had not stopped at any of the ports along the way so they could return home to Estonia.

In his statement, Mr Bartenev did say he saw a large amount of wood on board which is what the ship was supposed to have been carrying, although he said he did not actually look inside the hold.

The level of detail given in this account is striking and it is likely to fuel suspicions that the eight alleged pirates were set up to try to save Russia the embarrassment of explaining what the Arctic Sea was really carrying.

Sources close to Israeli intelligence have already told the BBC the piracy story was a cover to give the Russians time to intercept the ship which was allegedly transporting an air defence system for Iran.

In one further intriguing detail, the lawyer Konstantin Baranovsky told the BBC he had seen crucial evidence given by the Arctic Sea crew to Russian investigators.

"In their evidence some of the crew said that two days before they (the alleged pirates) were rescued, about twenty men who looked like police had boarded the ship from a speed-boat," he said.

An experimental HIV vaccine has for the first time cut the risk of infection, researchers say.

The vaccine - a combination of two earlier experimental vaccines - was given to 16,000 people in Thailand, in the largest ever such vaccine trial.

Researchers found that it reduced by nearly a third the risk of contracting HIV, the virus that leads to Aids.

It has been hailed as a significant, scientific breakthrough, but a global vaccine is still some way off.

The study was carried out by the US army and the Thai government over seven years on volunteers - all HIV-negative men and women aged between 18 and 30 - in some of Thailand's most badly-affected regions.

The vaccine was a combination of two older vaccines that on their own had not cut infection rates.

Half of the volunteers were given the vaccine, while the other half were given a placebo - and all were given counselling on HIV/Aids prevention.

The results found that the chances of catching HIV were 31.2% less for those who had taken the vaccine - with 74 people who did not get the vaccine infected and 51 of the vaccinated group infected. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8272113.stm>

The UK's largest haul of Anglo-Saxon treasure has been discovered buried beneath a field in Staffordshire.

Experts said the collection of 1,500 gold and silver pieces, which may date back to the 7th Century, was unparalleled in size.

It has been declared treasure by South Staffordshire coroner Andrew Haigh, meaning it belongs to the Crown.

Terry Herbert, who found it on farmland using a metal detector, said it "was what metal detectorists dream of".

The collection contains about 5kg of gold and 2.5kg of silver, making it far bigger than the Sutton Hoo discovery in 1939 when 1.5kg of Anglo-Saxon gold was found near Woodbridge in Suffolk.

Leslie Webster, former keeper at the British Museum's Department of Prehistory and Europe, said: "This is going to alter our perceptions of Anglo-Saxon England as radically, if not more so, as the Sutton Hoo discoveries.

Data from three spacecraft, including India's Chandrayaan probe, shows that very fine films of H20 coat the particles that make up the lunar dirt.

The quantity is tiny but could become a useful resource for astronauts wishing to live on the Moon, scientists say.

"If you had a cubic metre of lunar soil, you could squeeze it and get out a litre of water," explained US researcher Larry Taylor.

The rock and soil samples returned by the Apollo missions were found to be ever so slightly "damp" when examined in the laboratory, but scientists could never rule out the possibility that the moisture got into the samples on Earth.

Now a remote sensing instrument on Chandrayaan-1, India's first mission to lunar orbit, has confirmed that the signal was real.

Two other spacecraft to look at the Moon - Nasa's Deep Impact probe and the US-European Cassini satellite - back up Chandrayaan.

Both collected their Moon data long before Chandrayaan was launched (in the case of Cassini, 10 years ago), but the significance of what they saw is only now being realised. The quantity of water is seen to increase the closer the observations are made to the poles. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8272144.stm>

Uganda is preparing to make internet stars of its endangered mountain gorillas - with the help of some human stars from Hollywood.

Officials are launching a "Friend a Gorilla" website to allow readers to become friends with the animals on the Facebook site, for a $1 (£0.60) fee.

Jason Biggs, star of high school comedy American Pie, was among the actors in Kampala to help with the launch.

They are found on the slopes of the Virunga mountains on the borders of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where several animals have been killed by armed fighters.

Lillian Nsubuga, of the Uganda Wildlife Authority, told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme she hoped the initiative would raise money for the gorillas and promote Uganda as a tourist destination.

"Anybody with an account on Facebook will be able to click on this micro-site and get into our website," she said.

"When they get there they will find descriptions and faces and all types of photos of the gorillas in Bwindi National Park."

She says readers will be able to work out which particular animal they are fond of.

"If you like him and you choose him then you pay $1 and his face will appear on your Facebook page - then in addition to human friends you will have gorilla friends."

The Friend a Gorilla site is due to go live on Saturday in what Ms Nsubuga is billing as a "gorilla gala" launch.

At the moment, Jason Biggs and other actors are tracking a group of gorillas through the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest as part of their trip to Uganda. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8270711.stm>

Leaders of the G20 group of the world's most powerful countries pledged to bring the world economy out of recession when they met in London in April.

Wales' largest department store has opened in Cardiff, triggering a fightback by other city centre shops.

Thousands of customers are expected at John Lewis after it opens the doors to its biggest store outside of London.

It is the first opening in the £675m St David's 2 retail development, with the adjoining shopping centre launching in October.

But other stores in Cardiff are determined to join in the expected retail boom with refurbished premises.

The new 280,000 sq ft (26,000 sq m) four-storey John Lewis store, which opened for the first time at 0930 BST, will employ almost 800 people.

Cardiff council leader Rodney Berman said the store would attract more shoppers to the capital, boosting its growing reputation as a shopping destination.

"The opening of John Lewis is another significant step forward for the city of Cardiff," he said.

"I know there is huge expectation from people, not just in Cardiff but the whole south Wales region, in the opening of this store and it is going to prove to be another major attraction for the city of Cardiff."

Cardiff's current St David's shopping centre attracts around 30 million visitors a year, second only to Birmingham's Bullring.

But by the end of the decade it is estimated the Welsh capital will have the UK's busiest shopping centre development with a catchment area of 1.6 million people.

Mr Berman added: "John Lewis is going to play a key role in bringing more people into Cardiff and is another step forward into making the Welsh capital a leading European capital city." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/8266622.stm>

A multi-billion dollar university has opened in Saudi Arabia in an attempt to enable the country to compete in science and technology internationally.

The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology near Jeddah boasts one of the world's fastest supercomputers.

Saudi authorities hope the mixed-sex centre it will help modernise the kingdom's deeply conservative society.

The religious police will not operate on-site. Women will be allowed to mix freely with men and drive on campus.

This is in contrast to the wider country where a strict Wahhabi branch of Islam is practised and women are completely segregated.

The university's new president Professor Choon Fong Shih described the university as the opportunity of a generation.

"We give our academics the full freedom to pursue exceptional science. We fund them to work together in groups - men and women - to work on big ideas that will make a big impact," he said.

Similar efforts at promoting modern institutions have had mixed success in the past.

Some Saudis are concerned the university will become an international bubble which will operate in another dimension to the rest of the country.

Similar accusations have been directed at other institutions where there is a concentration of foreign nationals such as the state oil company, Saudi Aramco.

The university is full of modern hardware worth around $1.5bn including three-dimensional imaging facilities.

Medics posting messages on networking websites like Facebook and Twitter are breaching patient confidentiality, a leading journal reveals.

Research in the Journal of the American Medical Association found examples of web gossip by trainee doctors sharing private patient stories and details.

Over half of 78 US medical schools studied had reported cases of students posting unprofessional content online.

Most were blogs, including one on Facebook, containing enough clinical detail that patients could potentially be identified.

Sexually suggestive material and photos showing drunkenness or illicit drug use were also commonplace.

While most incidents resulted in informal warnings, some were deemed serious enough to lead to dismissal from medical school.

But few of the medical schools had policies that covered online social networking and blogging.

The investigators, led by Dr Katherine Chretien of the Washington DC VA Medical Center, said medical students may not be aware of how online posting can reflect negatively on medical professionalism or jeopardise their careers.

"Sharing patient stories that are de-identified and respectful, as health professionals might do on personal blogs, can encourage reflection, empathy and understanding.

"However, content may risk violation of patient privacy, even without using names or other identifiers," they warned.

Also, the line separating freedom of speech and inappropriate postings can be unclear - for example, derisive comments about a student's institution or profession might not be considered unprofessional by some, they said.

Dr Chretien's team say medical students should be taught as part of their training about the risks associated with making postings on the Internet.

As a matter of course, students should be shown how to elect privacy settings on social networking sites and should be told to perform periodic Web searches of their own name to vet listed online content.

A spokesman for the British Medical Association said: "Patient confidentiality is paramount and medical students and doctors obviously need to be very careful about any information they post online."

The UK's regulator of doctors, the General Medical Council, does not have guidance that covers medics' blogging.

But a spokeswoman advised doctors: "You must make sure that your conduct at all times justifies your patients' trust in you and the public's trust in the profession." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8266546.stm>

The world's biggest chip maker predicts that by 2015 there will be 12 billion devices capable of connecting to 500 billion hours of TV and video content.

Intel said its vision of TV everywhere will be more personal, social, ubiquitous and informative.

"TV is out of the box and off the wall," Intel's chief technology officer Justin Rattner told BBC News.

"TV will remain at the centre of our lives and you will be able to watch what you want where you want.

"We are talking about more than one TV capable device for every man and woman on the planet. People are going to feel connected to the screen in ways they haven't in the past," said Mr Rattner. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8272003.stm>

As the G20 nations prepare for their meetings in Pittsburgh, the consequences of one of their campaigns, against offshore tax havens, is leading to a stand-off between Britain and some of its overseas territories.

At around the same time as the world's most powerful leaders gather in the US, the head of one of the world's smallest nations, the Cayman Islands, will address his people to tell them how he intends to solve their financial worries.

Such is the depth of their problems that the Cayman Islands face having a major construction project frozen this week as they have not paid the contractor.

As things stand, the Cayman Islands government cannot borrow any more money to pay debts as it has hit its borrowing limits, which means it now has to get permission from the UK Foreign Office to borrow any extra money.

The Foreign Office is willing to let them do so, but only if they introduce direct taxation, something the Cayman leader, McKeeva Bush, is wholly opposed to.

"There will be no income tax; there will be no property tax. We are not asking the United Kingdom for anything. I wouldn't expect the UK to give me anything; I wouldn't expect their taxpayers to pay for anything in the Cayman Islands," said Mr Bush.

The Cayman Islands, along with Anguilla and the Turk and Caicos Islands, have been hit not just by the campaign against tax havens but also by the global recession, which has led to a dramatic fall in tourists.

Anguilla has also hit its borrowing limits and is warning that it soon may not be able to pay its civil servants.

An official report released earlier this month in the Turks and Caicos - which is currently being run directly by London after the governor sacked the government over allegation of corruption - found that the islands have "no known financial assets of any kind and owes $135m (£84m)".

"The problems are quite serious and are potentially going to get worse," says Professor Peter Clegg from the University of the West Indies.

"The basic problem is these countries are vulnerable to external factors including hurricanes but also recessions. So basing their economies on financial services and tourism, which are taking a serious hit at the moment (is leading to) serious budget problems."

It is in part with an eye on their long-term viability that the Foreign Office recently wrote to the Cayman Islands, warning them that they should not assume that their future prosperity can be based on being an off-shore tax haven.

Foreign Office minister Chris Bryant says the advice to the Cayman government extends to many of Britain's overseas territories in the Caribbean.

"I think it's absolutely important that those countries have open tax agreements with other countries, that they have a sustainable economic base for the future and that they can pay their bills," Mr Bryant told the BBC's World at One.

"I don't think it would be right for British taxpayers to be forking out for people who hadn't managed to manage their budgets properly in the overseas territories."

Those final comments go to the heart of one of the UK government's chief concerns - that an overseas territory will go bankrupt.

A report, commissioned by the Treasury and due to be completed next month, will look at the likelihood of such a scenario and set out the steps the government need to take to ensure that scenario does not arise. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8272942.stm>

The G20 group of leading and emerging economies will take on a new role as a permanent body co-ordinating the world economy, a US official has said.

The move will give more power to emerging economies, rather than to the developed powerhouses of the G8 group.

Senior EU officials later announced a deal to shift the balance of voting in the International Monetary Fund to benefit growing economies like China.

Currently, China wields 3.7% of IMF votes compared to France's 4.9%, although the Chinese economy is now 50% larger than that of France.

Near the venue, police fired rubber bullets at protesters on a march. The previous G20 meeting, in London in April, was marred by clashes.

The disturbances are thought to have begun after hundreds of protesters tried to march, without permission, towards the convention centre where the summit is being held.

"The G20 is going to be the new body counsel that will be the coordinating body for international economic cooperation," said an unnamed US official, quoted by Reuters news agency, as the two-day meeting began on Thursday evening.

With many major economies beginning to climb out of recession, attention at the G20 will turn to when and how to withdraw government stimulus packages.

Cracking down on bankers' bonuses has popular appeal with the public, it is expected that an agreement will be reached on how that might be achieved.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said G20 countries had reached a consensus on the "basic outline" of a proposal to limit pay and bonuses by the end of 2009.

Each country would set their own standards, he said, but that these would be overseen by the G20's Financial Stability Board - made up of central bankers and regulators.

Earlier, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling warned bankers that the "party was over" and they must realise that the world has changed. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8274046.stm>

North America's Monarch butterflies use a 24-hour "clock" in their antennae to help navigate the 4,000km to overwinter in Mexico, say scientists.

The insects navigate according to the position of the Sun, adjusting their calculations as it appears to move across the sky.

A paper in the journal Science shows the location of the clock is the antennae rather than the brain.

Scientists say the finding is a surprise as it has always been thought that the butterflies used a 24-hour clock in their brains in conjunction with their "Sun compass" when they migrated.

But some observations from 50 years ago indicated that when the butterflies' antennae were removed the insects no longer flew in the right direction.

A research team from University of Massachusetts Medical School, US, was also interested in studying the role of the antennae in butterfly social reactions as Monarchs are extremely gregarious when they migrate.

They removed the antennae from a group of butterflies and compared the way they flew with a control population in a flight simulator.

The intact butterflies all flew southwest, as normal, but the insects without antennae, although they flew strongly, headed off in random directions.

Co-author, Dr Steven Reppert, told BBC News: "This then perked up our interest more and set up a whole series of experiments, which essentially led us to discovering that the antennae, really we think, are the major site of the circadian clock that compensates for the movement of the Sun."

The researchers tested the molecular cycles of the circadian clock in the brains of the insects without antennae and discovered that they were still functioning normally.

Dr Reppert said: "So this suggested that: Wow! Maybe there's a clock in the antennae that's more important for the time compensated component of the insects' Sun compass orientation... It was a total surprise."

What they did next was to show that the molecular control of the clock in the antennae is identical to the way it is in the brain. They also showed that the antennal clock can sense light independently from the brain and can function independently.

Dr Reppert said: "What's so cool about what we did is it suggests that these clocks have a function that is directly related to the brain itself, that it is really regulating a central brain process."

In order to prove that the antennae contain both a light sensor and a clock, the scientists painted the antennae of one group of insects with black enamel paint and compared their behaviour with that of a group whose antennae were coated with transparent paint.

The group with the black painted antennae all flew together in the wrong direction, while those with the transparent paint were unaffected.

According to Dr Reppert: "This strongly suggested that the timing of the clocks was still apparent but since the antennae were painted black the internal clocks couldn't adjust their 24-hour oscillation to the prevailing light-dark cycle.

"So that's why their orientation was skewed. This brought everything together and really pointed towards the antennae as the major source of this time compensation mechanism."

"I think the take home message is that this really emphasises the importance of this appendage, the antenna of the butterfly.

"I think it's becoming more and more clear that the antennae have a number of functions that are independent from being odour detectors. They can function as ears, sensing sound and changes in barometric pressure, and now we can add to the list this function as a timepiece."

Iran has been accused of concealing a second uranium enrichment plant in defiance of international calls for transparency over its nuclear plans.

US President Barack Obama and French and UK leaders demanded UN inspectors have immediate access to the facility.

Iran revealed the existence of the plant to the UN watchdog on Monday, saying it was not yet operational and would only be used for nuclear energy.

A probe has been launched into claims that artworks featured in books about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo are fakes.

Mexican prosecutors are responding to a complaint by the artist's trust that 1,000 items in two books are forgeries.

But the publishers of Finding Frida Kahlo have rejected calls for the book to be withdrawn, saying it states that some items are not 100% authenticated.

Kahlo, who died in 1954, was known for her stark self portraits and was played by Salma Hayek in a 2002 biopic.

US officials have ordered workers to stop the construction of a tent for Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi near New York, a local attorney says.

The erection of the tent "violated several codes and laws of the town of Bedford", attorney Joel Sachs says.

It also emerged the Bedouin-style tent was being set up on property rented from real estate mogul Donald Trump.

Col Gaddafi had reportedly planned to use the tent for entertaining during the UN General Assembly in New York.

Col Gaddafi - who arrived in New York on Tuesday - traditionally shuns official residences during his trips abroad.

Bedford town attorney Joel Sachs said officials had given "a stop work" order to teams pitching Col Gaddafi's tent in the town, about 30 miles (48km) north of New York.

But he said the workers did not speak English and the order was then issued to the property caretaker.

"There is no such thing as diplomatic immunity when it comes to complying with local laws and ordinances," Mr Sachs was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

"This is a private piece of property and they have to comply with the laws of this municipality."

Mr Sachs said the authorities in Bedford had learned of Col Gaddafi's plans from the US secret service.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump said in a statement that part of the estate "was leased on a short-term basis to Middle Eastern partners, who may or may not have a relationship to Mr Gaddafi".

Last week, Libyan officials agreed not to pitch Col Gaddafi's tent in the grounds of a Libyan-owned property in the New Jersey town of Englewood because of opposition from local residents.

They protested against the warm welcome given in Libya to the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, following his release from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds.

Mobile phones 'harm blood cells'

Mobile phone radiation may damage cells by increasing the forces they exert on each other, scientists have said.

The finding could be the key to claims that mobile phones cause cancer and other health problems.
Swedish physicists looked at the effect of electromagnetic radiation on red blood cells using a mathematical theory, New Scientist reported.
Experts cautioned that the finding was theoretical and said there was no evidence of a danger to health.
There have been suggestions that mobile phones can cause brain tumours and Alzheimer's disease, but research has been inconclusive.

There is presently no evidence of cancer or any other serious health effect

Dr Michael Clark

The conventional view has been that radio waves could only damage a cell if they were energetic enough to break chemical bonds or "cook" tissue.
But radiation given off by mobile phone handsets is too weak to do this.

Bo Sernelius at Linkoping University, Sweden, looked at another possibility by modelling the properties of red blood cells.

Water molecules have poles of positive and negative charge which create forces between cells. These forces are normally extremely weak - about a billion-billionth of a newton.
Mathematical

The simplified mathematical model investigated the effect of electromagnetic radiation in the field of 850 megahertz on the blood cells.

850 megahertz is around the range used by some mobile phones, though different networks vary and some phones use around 1800 megahertz.

The molecules all ended up with their poles aligned in the same direction. The forces between the cells unexpectedly jumped by about 11 orders of magnitude.

If confirmed by experiments, the results could give an explanation for tissue damage. Stronger attractive forces between cells might make them clump together or cause blood cells to contract, New Scientist said.
Katie Daniel, deputy editor of the journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, said the finding was important.

"It highlights the idea that electromagnetic radiation might act on cells by affecting the attractive forces between them rather than simply causing heat damage to tissue," she said.

Camelia Gabriel, from King's College London, who is taking part in the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme funded by the Government, said the theory was feasible.
But she said the model was extremely simple and may not apply to larger numbers of cells.
"It needs to be tested experimentally," she said.

Dr Michael Clark at the National Radiological Protection Board said: "It is an interesting theory but it is not evidence of an effect on cells or a real health effect. I don't think the author would claim it was."
Recent reviews of the science had not shown there was a danger to health from using mobile phones, he said.

"There is presently no evidence of cancer or any other serious health effect. It is so far so good, but it is early days of course," said Dr Clark.

"The widespread use of mobile phones is a relatively recent phenomenon, particularly by children." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3605203.stm>

Rich or poor, Peruvians pride themselves on eating well. Fast food is frowned upon and a poorly-prepared platter is seldom tolerated.

Strange in a country where a quarter of children still suffer from malnutrition but Peru's sharp inequality is one of its many paradoxes. It is one of the 10 countries in the world classed as 'mega-diverse' in terms of its biodiversity, which means in nutritional terms it is rich beyond measure.

The Andes holds dozens of unique grains, roots and vegetables. It is the birthplace of the potato, with around 3,000 varieties.

The Peruvian Amazon is sparsely populated but a whole new world of flora and fauna. You can find caiman (a type of crocodile) on the menu here and an enormous freshwater fish, the paiche. Plaintains, peccaries (a type of wild pig) and dozens of unusual fruits make up the cuisine.

Peru's coast has probably the richest fishing grounds in the world thanks to the cold water Humboldt Current which sweeps up the western side of South America from Antarctica.

While chronic overfishing has left much of the rest of the world's oceans with dwindling fish stocks, Peru's sea is still bountiful. It has 80% of the world's biomass of anchovies near the bottom of a thriving food chain of marine fauna.

Fishmeal exports are one of the principal pillars of the economy. But now it is the food business which could be propping up Peru's strong economic growth as the financial crisis hits commodity prices and the country's extractive industries.

One study by a Peruvian company, Arellano Marketing, predicts that the food business will make up about 11% of Peru's predicted GDP in 2009. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8274932.stm>

Tirumagal is sweeping the yard. The yard of an ordinary house in the palm trees.

She, her husband and their three-year-old daughter are back home in Trincomalee from their war-time suffering and from Menik Farm.

The largest and most controversial of Sri Lanka's refugee camps, Menik Farm holds about a quarter of a million Tamils who fled the war zone in the final weeks as the government finally vanquished the Tamil Tigers or LTTE.

No-one is automatically allowed to leave the camp. But Tirumagal's family were among the first few hundred sent home by the authorities in early August to four districts in the east and north.

Like others at Menik, they had earlier been caught in the Tiger-held zone during the war's final spasms - a shrinking sliver of land between a lagoon and the sea.

It is harvest time in County Kildare, just west of Dublin, and the National Ploughing Championships seem to be fuelling more competitive spirit than the Lisbon Treaty campaign.

There are "Yes" and "No" Lisbon Treaty posters dotted along the rural roads which lead to the show grounds, but not many.

The EU treaty, rejected by Irish voters in June last year, will be put to the vote again on 2 October. This time round, voters generally seem more engaged in the issues.

The treaty is meant to streamline EU institutions to make them more efficient, but opponents say it will undermine national sovereignty.

Farmers and rural folk have flocked in their thousands to the fields of Cardenton for the National Ploughing Championships.

Myriad trade stands exhibit the best Ireland can offer in farming, engineering, food production. And then there is the art of ploughing itself - the sharp blades glint in the sun as they turn the earth in perfectly straight rows.

The credit crunch has battered Ireland, but here you do not get the feeling of recession. There is buying and selling all around - but there are also advice sessions on debt management. The upcoming treaty referendum is not top of the agenda here. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8273712.stm>

New rules on tipping waiting staff could cost restaurants £130 million and as many as 5,000 jobs, the hospitality industry association has claimed.

The new rules, which will make it illegal for tips to be used to make up staff wages, often to the national minimum, come into force on 1 October.

Restaurants will have to pay salaries in full, which will now attract national insurance on the whole amount.

But it estimates the amount will be nearer £60m, less than half the amount claimed by the BHA.

The British Hospitality Association (BHA) claims the cuts could mean one person per restaurant being out of work.

"One person's job may not sound a lot. But potentially that's quite a lot of jobs in these difficult circumstances," said Bob Cotton of the BHA, referring to the recession.

They cite the fact that 80% of owners already allow their staff to share tips on top of their salaries.

"The government would be better off trying to find those rogue operators, rather than a piece of legislation which I don't think is necessary."

Customers at his restaurant, the Inn @ West End, are still confused about who will be getting the benefit from now on.

Indeed the theory of the new rules is that the waiters, waitresses and kitchen staff should all get a greater share of the tips.

But there is nothing which stipulates that the restaurant must pass the money on to them.

The rule changes may mean some waiters and waitresses could end up getting no extra money as, for the first time, they would have to pay national insurance contributions on the full amount of their salaries. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8275837.stm>

India's inaugural Moon mission has been hailed as a "grand success" by the head of India's space agency, after helping find evidence of water on the Moon.

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chief G Madhavan Nair said a spacecraft probe found more water on the Moon "than was expected."

The mission was terminated last month after communication was lost with the orbiting spacecraft.

Data from three spacecraft, including India's Chandrayaan probe, has shown that very fine films of H2O coat the particles that make up the lunar dirt, US space agency Nasa announced.

The quantity is tiny but could become a useful resource for astronauts wishing to live on the Moon, scientists say.

"We truly believe it is a path-breaking finding. But this is just the beginning," Mr Nair said.

"Indians should be proud of the fact that the Chandrayaan enabled the discovery of water on the Moon," he said.

Indian scientists have welcomed the discovery and said more studies needed to be done to find out how much water was available and whether it was fit for human consumption.

"The results suggest that frost rather than water is present in the form of a thin film on the lunar surface. The quantity and its distribution across the Moon is still an open question," K Kasturirangan, a former chief of Isro told the Press Trust of India press agency.

"Ultimately, in the long run if humankind has to go and inhabit the Moon, one of the important requirements is that you should have adequate water for survival," he said.

"It is a very significant finding if we ever are to venture out to set up a base anywhere in the solar system, the Moon is the nearest destination," Amitabha Ghosh said.

One Big Step for India, A Giant Leap for Mankind, headlined The Times Of India newspaper.

"[The finding] has helped shake off the failure tag from the Chandrayaan project that was aborted last month," the paper said.

The mission was expected to cost 3.8bn rupees (£45m; $78m), considerably less than Japanese and Chinese probes sent to the Moon last year.

When they last met in London in April they were still on the brink, wondering whether the world might be facing an economic depression.

So they threw everything at the problem. In the Pittsburgh communique they concluded "it worked".

They are not denying that there is more work to do to make the current stirrings of recovery durable. But it does mean they can look a little further into the future.

One leading preoccupation now is preventing future financial crises. To do that, they plan an overhaul of financial regulation, with the aim of discouraging the high levels of lending to borrowers who were liable to default, that was a central feature of the crisis.

Bankers' bonuses are an important element in the reforms. With this issue there's a lot of politics.

Leaders know that many voters are appalled by the amount that some bankers receive, and some want to show they are responsive to those concerns. And if you think the kind of inequality that financial sector pay produces is unethical, you would want politicians to respond.

But there is another, more pragmatic reason for the G20 to take on bankers' pay. It can give them an incentive to take risks, to make a quick but unsustainable profit and then cash in a bonus.

So the G20 plan rules to make that harder to do. They want bonuses to be linked to long-term performance and to enable banks to claw them back in some cases.

There is no plan for general caps on the amount banks can pay out, something that some European governments wanted. The one exception is that the G20 proposals would limit a bank's bonus payments if paying out too much would endanger its financial soundness.

Will it work? There are plenty of people in finance who are ingenious enough to find ways round many regulations. With bonus rules the motive for making the effort is obvious.

Another key area is the amount banks have to keep in reserve to absorb losses - their capital. The key element is money from shareholders or profits not paid out as dividends to shareholders.

The G20 want to increase the size of the financial cushion that banks have to maintain.

It might make a difference, but it will depend on how much extra capital they have to hold, and that has not been agreed.

Some elements of this plan are likely to be very complex. For example, making these capital requirements more onerous in boom times is a good idea in theory. Why not make banks put a lot more aside in the good times, so they can better weather the storms?

There's another theme in the communique that could help prevent crises - global economic imbalances. They were partly responsible for the crisis.

Chinese consumers saved and the government built up foreign currency reserves. Much of this money was lent to the US and it enabled American consumers to borrow easily. They did and many got into financial difficulty.

The G20 communique does have an outline plan for some countries to stimulate more spending and less saving. There are no names, but China is the obvious candidate.

There is, however, no real enforcement mechanism beyond an unfavourable assessment from the International Monetary Fund.

But a very complex financial world is fiendishly difficult to regulate effectively.

If the G20 countries do all they say they will, it might reduce the risks to the banking system. But it is just not realistic to expect to banish crises for good. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8276067.stm>

Social networking website Twitter has confirmed that it has closed a "significant round of funding".

Co-founder Evan Williams said in a blog post that the site had secured money from five investment firms.

However, he did not confirm earlier reports that suggested the firm had managed to secure $100 million (£62m), which would value the firm at $1bn.

The site, which allows users to write and share 140-character messages, has more than 45 million users worldwide.

The site had previously raised $35m in February in a deal that valued the business then at $255m.

"It was important to us that we find investment partners who share our vision for building a company of enduring value," wrote Mr Williams.

Industry watchers have pointed out that the firm still has no way of making money.

However, earlier this month the site revised its terms and conditions to allow advertising on its service.

"We leave the door open for advertising. We'd like to keep our options open," wrote co-founder Biz Stone in a blog.

The new funding has come from new investors Insight Venture Partners and T Rowe Price, as well as existing backers Institutional Venture Partners, Spark Capital and Benchmark Capital. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8275792.stm>

The leaders of Libya and Venezuela have called on Africa and South America to create a new alliance to counter Western dominance.

They were speaking at the second South-America-Africa (ASA) summit held in the Venezuelan island of Margarita, attended by nearly 30 leaders.

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez called on the two continents to unite to secure prosperity for future generations.

The summit agenda covers hunger in Africa, the global economic crisis, energy, and the creation of a joint investment fund between Africa and South America.

As the debate continues about increasing troops in Afghanistan, questions are being posed over whether an alternative strategy should be pursued to sever local support of the Taliban. Hugh Sykes in Baghdad reflects on the lessons that could be learned from the experience of British forces in Iraq.

On the day United Kingdom troops hauled down the Union flag in Basra earlier this year, a British brigadier burst out of his office and shouted at one of my BBC colleagues: "That Hugh Sykes - get him in line."

But I suspect he had heard a report of mine broadcast after I spent four days in Basra city itself, wandering about, asking people what the British had achieved there.

Everyone I spoke to complained that the infestation of competing militias in Basra was only really tackled after the British had retreated to their airbase out in the desert.

They told me they believed that the militias were only truly neutralised by an Iraqi military operation called the "Charge of the Knights".

Parasitic gut worms, such as hookworm, might aid the development of new treatments for asthma and other allergies, a study in Vietnam suggests.

Infection with hookworm and other parasitic worms is endemic in Vietnam, but rates of asthma and other allergies are low.

British and Vietnamese scientists gave local children treatment to clear their body of worms.

Thanks to improved hygiene, practices parasitic worms have been mostly eradicated among human populations living in developed countries.

However, experts believe that over millions of years of co-evolution worms have found methods to dampen down host immune responses to prolong their own survival inside humans.

This relationship seems to have become so intertwined that without gut worms or other parasites, our immune system can become unbalanced, which, in turn, could contribute to the development of asthma and other allergies.

The latest study was conducted in a rural area of central Vietnam where two in every three children have hookworm and other gut parasite infections, and where allergies are extremely rare.

Some of the children were given repeated tablet treatments to clear their body of gut worms.

The treatment did not produce any conclusive effect on rates of asthma or eczema.

However, those children who received the tablets did have a significantly increased risk of developing allergies to the house-dust mite.

Up to 80% of people with asthma also have allergies to house-dust mites and other environmental allergens.

The researchers said this strongly suggests that gut worms have the potential to tone down human immune responses.

Researcher Dr Carsten Flohr, of the University of Nottingham, said: "The next step is to understand exactly how and when gut parasites programme the human immune system in a way that protects against allergies, and for such studies, follow-up from birth will be essential."

The hope is that the work could aid the development of new treatments which work in the same way as gut parasites, by dampening down or rebalancing the immune system so that the body does not respond to allergens and trigger asthma attacks.

Dr Elaine Vickers, Research Relations Manager at the charity Asthma UK, which funded the research, said: "The prospects of further studies in this area are very exciting as we could see groundbreaking treatments for asthma and other allergies developed as a result." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8268584.stm>

In India's remote north-east, the people of the state of Bihar have devised a novel and environmentally friendly way to cremate their dead.

Where traditionally only the wood from a mango tree was used to fuel the funeral fire in this part of India, now people are making do with cow dung as an alternative source of fuel.

It may sound outlandish but this unique local innovation is not only catching on fast but has achieved widespread social acceptance.

Annual flooding in two districts of of northern Bihar has meant that access to mango trees is restricted.

The new system is known as the "goraha" way of cremation. Cow dung is fashioned into a long rod-shaped cake, locally known as goraha.

Goraha is easily available and coming from herbivorous cattle, acceptable in sacred terms too. All this has helped Biharis opt for this new method of cremation. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8269289.stm>

Recently there has been talk of finding a solution to Turkey's long running war with the Kurdish separatist group the PKK, and negotiations are said to be going on behind the scenes to bring about peace. Promising signs for some - too late for others.

"We need to stop this dirty war. Don't let our children die anymore," Sakine Arat tells me. She, as much as anyone, knows the cost of this war.

The first time I saw Mrs Arat, a Kurdish woman in her 70s, was on a television programme.

"Is there any other pain more profound than the loss of one's child?" she lamented as I watched her describe how she had lost three sons during the 25-year conflict. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8244068.stm>

Are you a disgruntled steelworker? A member of China's Falun Gong sect, maybe? Perhaps you are an army veteran opposed to the war in Iraq? Or an anarchist intent on smashing the system?

If you fall into any of these categories, then Pittsburgh certainly had a protest march for you!

As is tradition at international summits, so too has it been the same in Pittsburgh, with thousands of people taking to the streets.

And - again true to traditional summit form- it was sometimes tough to discern much of a common thread uniting the protesters this year.

"We are here to add our voices to the thousands of citizens marching against the G20," said Mike Ferner, President of Veterans for Peace.

"I am marching against the spread of capitalism," said student Sam Jewler, after loosening his trademark anarchist black face-mask.

"The system commodifies individuals. I'm interested in the way Native American communities organise themselves, without top-down, authoritarian leaders.

"The way the police have acted here really shows just how much of a police state America has become," he added.

The police - and the National Guard - were indeed a dominating presence on the streets in Pittsburgh.

Some wore futuristic body-armour, others carried guns capable of firing rubber bullets and tear-gas grenades.

Before the march began, they had festooned Pittsburgh's Fifth Avenue with police tape, on which was written - perhaps prematurely - "Crime Scene - Do Not Cross".

Unlike Wednesday's demonstration, in which dozens of protesters were arrested and tear gas, smoke bombs and sonic weapons were used, Thursday's march was - in the words of President Obama - "very tranquil".

Nevertheless, the threat of violence permeated the air, especially when one particularly rowdy group of masked protesters (accompanied by an equally fearsome looking parade of black-clad police) marched down the street.

I got the impression that these protesters were using the march less as a forum for expressing their political beliefs, and more as an opportunity to engage in a much-loved pursuit.

Whether expressing passionate opinions or looking for a fight, the marchers - like their ideological opposites, the conservative Tea Partiers earlier this month - had a shopping-list of grievances that did not necessarily gel very well together.

And it was also hard to shake the feeling that few of the marchers' concerns had anything at all to do with what was being discussed a few blocks away, in the Pittsburgh Convention Centre.

President Obama, in his closing press conference, made the point that the protesters might have actually been rather pleased with some of the deals that the G20 leaders had reached.

"Ironically, if they had paid attention, they would have heard a strong recognition that it is important to make sure that the market is working for ordinary people… If they are actually interested, they should read the communique," President Obama said.

His tone was rather dismissive. In reality, some of the marchers may well take the time to read the leaders' closing statement.

But his remark laid bare the disconnection between the protesters on the street and the politicians in the hall.

The heads of government clearly feel like they are addressing the concerns of the public, while the marchers think they are being ignored.

Millions of pounds of taxpayers' money is being wasted in the Department for Children, Schools and Families, an internal government report suggests.

The report, by former WH Smith chief executive Richard Handover, has been seen by BBC One's Politics Show.

It claims civil servants and head teachers appear to have no idea what value for money means, and calls for 40,000 teaching assistant jobs to go.

However, last week, he appeared to rule out the sort of job losses proposed by Mr Handover.

There is a point where the River Elbe flows out of the port of Hamburg at which every cargo ship is given a traditional, musical greeting or farewell.

A small pair of speakers plays the Hamburg anthem and the voice before the national anthem of the country to which the vessel belongs is piped into the ether.

But while maritime traditions have not been affected by the global economic downturn, the flow of sea traffic has.

Over the past two years, the cargo passing through Hamburg's harbour has dropped by about a third, with significant knock-on effects.

Not only have fewer national anthems been played, but fewer containers have been filled.

And that means that hundreds of ships which have been ordered are no longer required - a serious blow to a city where ship building, ship repairs - and ship financing - form an important part of the economy.

Carsten Rehder, who runs an eponymous shipping firm that has been in the family for over a century, remains calm.

"People say this is the 22nd downturn in 300 years," he told me, sitting beneath a row of family portraits, "so we are approaching the 23rd upturn.

"My father's and grandfather's generation had it much worse - with world wars and inflation like we've never seen."

Although many workers have had to go onto short or part-time work, Germany's social safety net has been unfurled, topping up their wages so that neither they - nor their employers - have lost out.

As the German economy begins to pick up, there is a sense of confidence in Hamburg that global trade will do the same, leaving Germany's export-driven economy in a strong position.

Far from rebalancing its economy away from exports, as US President Barack Obama would like, Germans think the balance is just about right.

Olaf Preuss of Hamburger Abendblatt is a long-time chronicler of the shipping business, and he is optimistic.

"Yes, it is true that we depend on the revival of export markets, but there are huge chances and possibilities over the next few decades," he says.

An essay written by Sir Paul McCartney as a 10-year-old has been found after lying undiscovered in Liverpool's Central Library for more than 50 years.

Years before the Beatles received their MBEs, he beat hundreds of other school children to win a prize for his 1953 essay marking the Queen's coronation.

In 2013, the library will display the essay - found in a scrapbook - to mark the 60th anniversary of the coronation.

Thought to be one of the earliest surviving written works by Sir Paul, the essay gave him an early taste of appearing in public.

Liverpool's Lord Mayor presented him with the prize - despite the work having been marked down for grammatical errors.

McCartney's neat writing has the same curly ends on capital letters which he used later on the "B" of "Beatles" on the group's drum skin.

The schoolboy compares the happy scenes expected outside Buckingham Palace with the coronation of William the Conqueror nine centuries earlier, when a massacre of Saxons took place.

He declares that Britain's "present day royalty rules with affection rather than force".

The essay also mentions a coronation cup with Elizabeth II on the front and Elizabeth I on the back, and he concludes it by saying: "After all this bother, many people will agree with me that it was well worth it."

Some 16 years later, with the Beatles nearing their break-up, McCartney was still writing about the monarch.

His song Her Majesty, featuring the lyrics "Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl, some day I'm going to make her mine", was recorded for the Abbey Road LP.

The Japanese yen has hit an eight-month high against the dollar - denting the share prices of many exporters.

The currency reached 88.23 yen per dollar - the highest since January's 13-year high of 87.10.

A stronger yen makes Japanese exports less competitive - but makes imports more affordable to Japanese consumers.

Observers said the strengthening of the yen came after comments suggesting that the likelihood of Japan intervening to weaken its currency had receded.

In the past, Japan has stepped into the currency markets to weaken the yen when the government thought its rise was threatening growth in the world's second-largest economy.

The authorities have not intervened since 2005, but some observers had believed finance minister Hirohisa Fujii could step in to halt the yen's strengthening.

However, Mr Fujii told the Dow Jones newswire that that "foreign exchange dumping" to defend Japanese exporters would be the wrong policy.

"It would be a mistake to artificially influence foreign exchange rates," Mr Fujii was quoted as saying.

Mr Fujii became finance minister after the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) last month ended more than 50 years of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party.

Earlier this month, he said a strong yen had merits, but he has backed down from this view as the rise has gained momentum.

Honda Motors and electronic parts maker Kyocera were among the exporters seeing their shares lose ground on Monday.

The benchmark Nikkei index fell 256.46 points to 10,009.52 - its lowest close since late July. It also hit a two-month intraday low of 9,971.05. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8277952.stm>

The Savile Row Bespoke Association has initiated a type of sartorial kite mark to distinguish its suits from other companies which make large parts of their suits overseas.

But there is a row over who should be able to call themselves a Savile Row tailor.

Michael Skinner, chairman of Dege & Skinner, having just listed some of his illustrious customers -including senior members of Europe's aristocracy - was unwilling to have the information in the public domain.

Such value is placed on discretion in Savile Row that even the chance of free publicity would not lure him into divulging the identities of his blue-blooded or A-list clients.

They do not even place their own suit labels in a prominent position on their handmade garments.

It is that type of under-the-radar marketing which has survived numerous wars and fashion trends to build up Savile Row's reputation for quality to an unmatched status around the world.

While few question the quality of Savile Row bespoke suits, many an eyebrow has been raised at the cost. A handmade suit from the traditional tailors, with 50 man-hours of skilled craftwork, retails from £3,000 ($4,500 or €3,300) upwards.

But despite having dressed the rich, respected and royal for over a century and a half, the tailors on "the Row" face a new threat.

Interlopers have arrived in this tiny corner of London's Mayfair - selling suits with the Savile Row moniker, but at a fraction of the cost. And it is getting up the noses of the traditional firms.

"There are some firms on Savile Row who don't do what we do," says Michael Skinner, who has been making suits there for more than 50 years.

"They are masquerading by having the two little magic words 'Savile Row' after their title. It is confusing for customers because they think 'Why should they charge X for a suit and you charge X times three?'"

It is an accusation rejected by Swiss-owned Sartoriani, which has two tailors working on the floor below Dege & Skinner in Savile Row and a sales office on nearby Old Bond Street.

"The word 'bespoke' is an emotive word. It has evolved over the years, over the decades," says Peter Opie, sales director with Sartoriani.

The company has seen its sales rise since a ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority in Britain allowed "made-to-measure" companies to sell cheaper suits as "Savile Row Bespoke" even though much of the garment is made overseas.

"They have got nothing to complain about," says Mr Opie, whose firm measures customers in London before manufacturing suits elsewhere in England as well as Germany.

The deal ends an exclusive arrangement between UK network operator O2 and the Californian phone maker, which has been in place since 2007.

Orange said its customers would be able to buy the phone "later this year" but did not specify a date or pricing.

Orange now offers the popular handset - of which more than 25 million have been sold worldwide - in 28 countries and territories.

"Pricing will be key," Dave McQueen, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media told BBC News.

There are currently no details about whether Orange will undercut O2's price plans for the handset.

Orange recently revealed plans to merge its UK network with Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile to create a business with 28.4 million customers.

If given the go-ahead, it would be the UK's largest provider, overtaking Telefonica's O2, with about 37% of the mobile market.

"That would be good for Apple," said Mr McQueen. "Then, around three quarters of the UK market will then have access to the iPhone."

O2 has offered the handset in the UK since its launch in 2007. In February, it said it had sold more than one million of the handsets.

The launch of the latest iPhone 3GS in June significantly boosted sales, with many stores running out of stock.

The phone has also allowed the firm to win subscribers from other networks, according to analysts.

However, the rise of smartphones - which have the ability to surf the web and send e-mail - has put a burden on the O2 network, according to Mr McQueen.

"IPhone users to tend to use data quite extensively - perhaps more than anticipated," he said.

"Orange has always a good data network and if the T-mobile deal goes through it would allow them to share the burden."

O2 will continue to sell the handset in Britain, alongside iPhone rival the Palm Pre.

The Palm phone, described by some as an "iPhone killer", will be available exclusively to O2 from 16 October.

O2 said that it always knew that its exclusive deal was for "a limited period of time".

The new agreement with Orange brings the UK into line with many other countries around the world which have multiple operators that offer the iPhone.

In countries where exclusive deals still persist, such as the US, some customers choose to "unlock" their phones using third party software so they work on an unlicensed network.

However, Apple has warned that the practice can cause "irreparable" damage to a handset and has engaged in a game of cat-and-mouse, releasing periodic software updates which prevent unlocked phones from working correctly. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8278073.stm>

The US government is expected to relax control over how the internet is run when it signs an accord with net regulator Icann on Wednesday.

The "affirmation of commitments" will reportedly give Icann autonomy to run its own affairs for the first time.

Previous agreements gave the US close oversight of Icann - drawing criticism from other countries.

Earlier this year, the EU called on the US to relinquish its control and Icann to become "universally accountable".

"The US government is the only body to have had formal oversight of Icann's policies and activities since its inception in 1998," it said.

"The Commission believes that Icann should become universally accountable, not just to one government but to the global internet community.

"This is particularly relevant given that the next billion of internet users will mainly come from the developing world."

The current agreement between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) and the US Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration is due to expire on Thursday. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8275679.stm>

Engineers hope an early warning system being installed at the Large Hadron Collider could prevent incidents of the kind which shut the machine last year.

The helium leak last September, which resulted from a "faulty splice" between magnets, has delayed the start of science operations by more than a year.

The vast physics lab is built inside a 27km-long circular tunnel straddling the French-Swiss border near Geneva.

The LHC will send two beams of particles crashing into each other at close to the speed of light. Scientists hope to see new particles in the debris of these collisions, revealing fundamental new insights into the nature of the cosmos and how it came into being.

This LHC "ring" is split into eight distinct parts, or sectors. Six of these are now at or close to their operating temperature of 1.9 kelvin (-271C; -456F).

Engineers are powering up magnets in three sectors to prepare for the injection of proton beams into the ring.

A low-intensity beam could be injected into the LHC in the second half of October, officials told the BBC.

This beam test would involve only parts of the collider, rather than the whole "ring". If all goes to plan, the first beam collisions could occur before the end of the year. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8270427.stm>

In a dramatic acceleration of forecasts for global warming, UK scientists say the global average temperature could rise by 4C (7.2F) as early as 2060.

The Met Office study used projections of fossil fuel use that reflect the trend seen over the last 20 years.

Their computer models also factored in new findings on how carbon dioxide is absorbed by the oceans and forests.

The finding was presented at an Oxford University conference exploring the implications of a 4C rise.

The results show a "best estimate" of 4C being reached by 2070, with a possibility that it will come as early as 2060.

Richard Betts of the Met Office Hadley Centre described himself as "shocked" that so much warming could occur within the lifetimes of people alive today.

"If greenhouse gas emissions are not cut soon then we could see major climate changes within our own lifetimes," he said.

A BBC investigation has uncovered the deadly practice of British Asians travelling to India to hire contract killers.

Family and business associates, who are lured to the sub-continent, are often the targets.

In a country where murder is cheaper and less fraught with risk, the perpetrators of these crimes are rarely brought to justice.

Campaigners in both India and the UK believe this to have claimed the lives of hundreds of victims over several years.

Children whose mothers work are less likely to lead healthy lives than those with "stay at home" mums, a study says.

The Institute of Child Health study of more than 12,500 five-year-olds found those with working mothers less active and more likely to eat unhealthy food.

Other experts said more work was needed to see if the results applied to other age groups. The study is in the Journal of Epidemiology and Child Health.

Children who impress their peers at school tend to go on to enjoy better health as adults, research suggests.

The study was based on a 30-year follow-up of more than 14,000 children born in Sweden in 1953.

The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health study found the least popular children had a nine times higher risk of ischaemic heart disease.

They were also more at risk of diabetes, drug, alcohol and mental health problems.

The degree of popularity, power and status enjoyed by each child was assessed when the children reached sixth grade in 1966 by asking them who they most preferred to work with at school.

Individual children were categorised into five status bands depending on how many nominations they received.

The researchers then matched up this data against information on hospital admissions between 1973 and 2003.

For both men and women, the children who were furthest down the pecking order at school had the highest overall risk of serious health problems as an adult.

For instance, they were more than four times as likely to require hospital treatment for hormonal, nutritional and metabolic diseases as the most popular children.

A 14-year-old girl has died after being given a cervical cancer jab as part of a national immunisation programme, but the exact cause of death is unknown.

The pupil was taken ill at Blue Coat CofE School in Coventry shortly after she received the Cervarix vaccine. She died in the town's University Hospital.

The local NHS said there would be a "short pause" in the vaccination programme but it would then continue.

The injection protects against a sexually transmitted disease, which is linked to most cervical cancers.

A routine programme of vaccinating 12 and 13-year-old girls started in September 2008 across the UK using the Cervarix vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline. A catch-up campaign is now under way for older girls.

As China prepares to mark the 60th anniversary of Communist rule, the BBC's Michael Bristow takes a look at one of the country's few remaining communes, a hallmark of the early Communist regime.

In the village of Nanjie in northern China, workers begin the day by singing in praise of the country's former leader Mao Zedong.

More than three decades after his death, Chairman Mao is still remembered fondly across China, but in Nanjie he has a special significance.

The village is one of the country's last remaining communes, where workers still abide by many of the former chairman's principles.

Most communes were disbanded years ago as China's leaders began to turn the country's planned economy into one governed by the market.

But the Nanjie commune is still going strong, providing its residents with their daily needs. Few people want to see it disappear.

"I feel very relaxed and secure living in Nanjie. Whether we're talking about work or life in general, I'm very satisfied," said the 34-year-old.

As China's Communist Party celebrates 60 years in power this week, it is emphasising the country's bright future.

But this commune is a reminder that some people think the past had much to offer.

Villagers have just harvested their crop of corn, which is currently drying on roadsides and in open spaces around Nanjie.

The commune also has a number of small food-processing factories that make products such as beer, chocolate, hot sauce and noodles.

The logo for Afghanistan's Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) turned out to be fitting.

More than a month after millions of Afghans cast their ballots, a controversial election is going down to the wire, to the last institution on this chequered political landscape.

The ECC, the only electoral body which still has both foreign and Afghan officials, must now rule on a contentious vote mired in allegations of widespread, significant fraud.

After a series of meetings, a formula for a recount was agreed with the Independent Election Commission which carried out the preliminary tally giving 54.6% to Hamid Karzai in the presidential ballot.

ECC officials speak of a "scientifically drawn sample" from 10% of suspicious polling stations. They also believe it provides the most practical way forward in the midst of growing concern over this protracted political uncertainty.

"It's fair," affirms the Canadian head of the ECC, Grant Kippen, whose official pronouncements give little hint of the pressures now resting on his team.

The ECC is also working into the night, trying to sort through hundreds of complaints and is said to be "closer to the end than the beginning".

This technical body now shoulders the weight of political anxiety and expectation.

"We must follow the process," is now the mantra of foreign envoys and Afghans who have invested energy and hope in an exercise that was meant to move this country forward at a time of major challenges on every front. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8278868.stm>

Oxfam launches East Africa appeal

Oxfam has launched an emergency appeal for £9.5m ($15m) to reach millions of people threatened by hunger in Ethiopia and other East African countries.

The UK-based agency says thousands of animals have already died because of a drought which is the worst in 10 years.

Warning signs indicate that the lives and livelihoods of 23 million people are threatened - twice as many as the last serious crisis in 2006.

Seven countries are affected, with half of those threatened living in Ethiopia.

Other worst affected countries are Kenya, Somalia and Uganda, with Sudan, Djibouti and Tanzania also hit hard. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8279796.stm>

The Philippines government says 240 people are now known to have died in severe flooding caused by Tropical Storm Ketsana.

The country has appealed for foreign aid to deal with the disaster, which has displaced more than 450,000 people.

President Gloria Arroyo has opened the presidential palace to survivors to receive food aid and shelter.

Some 380,000 people are living in makeshift shelters, three times more than previously reported.

Weather forecasters are predicting more heavy rain later in the week, increasing the urgency of helping those left most vulnerable by the worst flooding in more than 40 years. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8279801.stm>

Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said Americans should set aside any doubts about the commitment of other Nato members to the war in Afghanistan.

In his first speech in the US as secretary-general, Mr Rasmussen said the campaign in Afghanistan was one of necessity, not choice.

The speech comes after the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan warned of likely failure without more troops.

Mr Rasmussen pointed out 40% of the Nato troops involved in the operation were from non-US countries and that soldiers from more than 20 countries had been killed.

Shoring up the coalition is what this visit is all about, says the BBC's Paul Adams in Washington, and with that end in mind, Mr Rasmussen carefully avoided taking sides in the American troop debate.

He didn't say, and it is not clear, whether he thinks additional troops are the answer, our correspondent notes.

The US says its planned dialogue with Burma's military rulers must be part of a "sustained process of interaction".

The State Department says the Burmese leadership has for the first time shown an interest in engaging with the US, and Washington intends to pursue that.

Also on Monday, Burma's Prime Minister, Gen Thein Sein, told the UN General Assembly that sanctions were "unjust" and should be stopped.

Gen Thein Sein - the most senior member of the Burmese government to appear at the UN for nearly 15 years - vowed to take "systematic steps to hold free and fair elections" next year. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8279751.stm>

Barely noticeable you would think. I can see what it is like to be him by standing on tip-toes just a little and frankly the world does not look much different from up there.

Nonetheless it bothers me: I could have been that tall. I have exactly the same genes as my brother.

Genes that, in the right environment, could have made me a full 185cm tall as opposed to my current 183cm.

Something, somewhere went wrong and I got stunted. Not by much but it is a reminder of what could have been.

It is not the height, not that trousers fit him a little better or that he does not need to reach as far to change a light bulb.

Ten points of IQ here, some grey hair there. Perhaps I will need glasses at age 35 instead of 40.

Most people do not have anyway of knowing whether or not they are getting the most out of their genes but if you have a twin sibling then you have an exact comparison.

The differences between identical twins - people who should be exactly the same - are becoming increasingly useful to medical researchers interested in everything from mental illness to our ability to do maths.

Most people are used to thinking of our DNA as a fairly fixed code, a bit like a blueprint for a building.

We know that some things can change the code itself - exposure to radiation can cause mutations that lead to an increased risk of cancer for example - but usually the code remains the same.

However, production of the molecules for which our genes are responsible - things like digestive enzymes and muscle protein - is constantly getting switched on and off.

And it seems that some environmental influences can have much more lasting effects - permanently activating or inactivating certain genes.

It is becoming apparent that this aspect of genetic control - a process dubbed epigenetics - is very important in human health.

In 1944 there was a severe famine in Holland. The children born during this period are more susceptible to diabetes, obesity and heart disease compared to siblings who were older during the famine.

It seems that the period of starvation prompted their bodies to switch certain genes on or off to cope with the lack of food.

These changes may, in subsequent times of plenty, have made them gain weight and get diabetes.

This change in the particular genes we express is controlled chiefly through a process called "methylation" in which chemical groups are attached to the DNA molecule to tell the body whether or not to use the "methylated" genes.

It is one of the ways in which our bodies' attempt to adapt to changing environments.

In the summer of 2009 Chris and I joined the twin research study at St Thomas's Hospital where we were investigated in great detail.

They measured our height, weight, bone density, grip strength even ability to hear if a nursery rhyme is in tune.

Of the thousands of twins enrolled in the research program only 10 were more different in weight than us.

Professor Tim Spector who leads the research unit was frank: "You're (he meant me) a disgrace."

But environmental exposure to a lot of cheap, high-fat food in America may have caused more than temporary weight gain.

Scientists are only just beginning to understand these processes but it is possible that I may have permanently altered my metabolism to accommodate those extra pounds: the health effects could last a long time. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8280431.stm>

Online advertising spending in the UK has overtaken television expenditure for the first time, a report has said.

Outlay grew 4.6% to £1.752bn between January and July, according to the study by the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The recession saw overall advertising slide by 16% in the period, according to the study.

E-mail campaigns, classified adverts, display ads and search marketing are all classed as online advertising.

The body representing UK commercial television broadcasters said that the comparison was unfair.

The recession had accelerated the migration of advertising spending to digital technology - from more traditional media such as print, radio and television advertising to online, according to the report.

Justin Pearse, editor of industry website New Media Age, said the tough economic times had led to a significant fall in TV advertising spending, which saw it being overtaken about a year earlier than most had expected.

"It had to happen eventually, but online advertising has been seen as the poor cousin to TV for so long that it's still a huge milestone."

Technology firms were the biggest spenders on online adverts, making up about 19% of the market, the report said, followed by telecoms firms, the finance sector and entertainment and media.

Online display advertising - such as banners - had "performed notably well against its peers in TV, print and radio", said Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the Internet Advertising Bureau.

"We have a rollercoaster of a year ahead, but even in tough economic conditions, marketers still recognise the value, accountability and measurability of online advertising."

However, Thinkbox, the marketing body for the main UK commercial television broadcasters, said the figures did not compare like with like.

"Online marketing spend is made up of many things including e-mail, classified ads, display ads and, overwhelmingly, search marketing. They should be judged individually," said Lindsey Clay, Thinkbox's marketing director.

"The internet is a fantastic technology and home to many different marketing activities that do different things. As such, it is interesting but meaningless to sweep all the money spent on every aspect of online marketing into one big figure and celebrate it.

Television advertising remained the most effective advertising medium "pound for pound" but was even more effective when put together, Ms Clay added.

US consumer confidence fell unexpectedly in September, suggesting Americans are not as convinced as US policymakers of an economic recovery.

The closely-watched Consumer Confidence Index from the Conference Board business organisation slipped to 53.1 from a revised 54.5 in August.

Separately, a leading US index has shown a better-than-expected increase in house prices in July.

"Consumers viewed both current business conditions and the labour market less favourably than last month," said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board's Research Center.

"Consumers remain quite apprehensive about the short-term outlook and their incomes. With the holiday season quickly approaching, this is not very encouraging news," he added.

Earlier this month, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that the US recession was probably over, while President Barack Obama has said the economy is improving.

US consumer confidence is closely watched, as personal spending accounts for about 70% of US economic activity.

"I want to be a pilot," says Hemat, eight, who adds that he is top of his class in maths.

There is optimism among the young children at the Bibi Mahro school on the outskirts of Kabul and a cast-iron certainty about the jobs they would like to do in the future.

With much going wrong in Afghanistan, education is seen as one of the rare success stories in the country.

It is an issue Western leaders cling to: more children are being educated than ever before - and girls are back in the classrooms having being effectively banned from going to school under the Taliban.

But Afghanistan is a country where aspirations can be cruelly crushed - and where the chances of becoming a pilot or a doctor are slim.

And that is down to a drastic shortage of university places. There are about 20,000 government places at university in Afghanistan, according to officials.

Rashid, 18, is a typical example. He is about to leave Bibi Mahro school and hopes to study engineering. But he knows there is every chance he will not find a university place.

But going to university is more than just about Afghans getting a good job. It will be crucial when the West eventually leaves Afghanistan.

Part of the strategy here is to "institution build", in effect, create a pool of well-educated bureaucrats who can run the country themselves instead of relying on highly-paid international advisers. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8280765.stm>

A girl who died shortly after being given a cervical cancer vaccine had a "serious underlying medical condition", an NHS Trust has said.

NHS Coventry said the vaccination was "most unlikely to have caused the death" of Natalie Morton, 14.

She was given the Cervarix jab at Coventry's Blue Coat School on Monday and fell ill a few hours later.

The government said its national cervical cancer immunisation programme should continue.

Dr Caron Grainger, joint director of public health for NHS Coventry and Coventry City Council, said the results of a preliminary post-mortem examination had "revealed a serious underlying medical condition which was likely to have caused death".

"We are awaiting further test results which will take some time," she said. "However indications are that it was most unlikely that the HPV vaccination was the cause of death."

The injection - part of a national immunisation programme - protects against the human papilloma virus (HPV), a sexually transmitted disease linked to most cervical cancers. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8281673.stm>

More than 18 million households with Freeview will need to retune their set-top boxes and TVs later.

The service is being upgraded to give more homes channel Five, while those that did get Five will find themselves unable to watch it until they retune.

TV sets, set-top boxes and digital recorders will need retuning from lunchtime. It is thought about 20,000 older set-top boxes will cease to work.

The technical changes behind the upgrade will eventually enable high-definition (HD) television to be broadcast on Freeview. HD is already available on the free-to-air satellite service Freesat.

"These are significant and necessary changes which will immediately bring Freeview viewers new channels, introduce new homes to existing channels and prepare the platform for the future availability of Freeview HD," said Ilse Howling, managing director of Freeview.

All Freeview TV sets, set-top boxes and digital recorders, including TopUp TV and BT Vision boxes, will need to be retuned from lunchtime on 30 September.

The upgrade will affect around 18 million homes, and it thought that about 25 million televisions and set-top boxes will need retuning.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut its forecast for the amount likely to be written off globally in bad loans and investments by 15%.

The total it expects banks to lose between 2007 and 2010 has been cut to $3.4tn (£2.1tn) from $4tn.

The IMF said the change was made because the world economy was growing faster than had been expected.

But it has warned that the improvement should not be taken as an excuse to delay necessary financial reforms.

Its Global Financial Stability Report said that risks to the global financial system had subsided as a result of interventions by governments and central banks, as well as signs of a global recovery. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8282074.stm>

Carmaker Toyota has announced its biggest recall, saying it will call in 3.8 million vehicles in the US.

The problem is with loose floormats, which may cause the accelerator pedal to stick.

The problem affects eight models of Toyota and Lexus cars and trucks in the US, where owners have been told to remove floormats on the driver's side.

The political crisis in Honduras is having a crippling effect on trade in Central America, with Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica losing millions of dollars of trade every day.

Because of its geographical position, practically all goods traded in the region have to pass through Honduran territory.

But their flow has been hampered, especially since the return to Honduras last week of ousted President Manuel Zelaya and the imposition of a nationwide curfew, which still has not been completely lifted.

At the height of the political turmoil last week, the interim government of Roberto Micheletti also closed the country's borders and shut airports.

Those restrictions have now been lifted but an emergency decree suspending civil liberties remains in place.

It could be a scene straight out of the Wild West: a homesteader struggling to tame a wilderness and turn it into productive farmland to provide a living for himself and his family.

But this struggle of man against the land is happening in the central province of Camaguey in Cuba.

Jorge Alcides has no electricity in the simple wooden home he built for his pregnant wife and two children.

He milks his three dairy cows by hand, sitting on a handmade stool. He and his son plough the fields using oxen. But he is not complaining.

"I'm really happy, it's different when you work for yourself rather than being paid a wage," he said.

Communist Cuba is undergoing one of the largest land redistributions since Fidel Castro's revolution in 1959; only this time it is leasing state-owned farmland to the private sector.

In a bid to boost production and reduce costly imports, President Raul Castro is offering small plots of unproductive state land to family farmers and private co-operatives.

Around 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) are up for grabs. So far about 86,000 applications for land have been approved, with tens of thousands more Cubans hoping to participate.<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8280441.stm>

A large piece of cloth that appeared to be covered in bloodstains lay abandoned in the bushes. In a country often wracked by violence, it was, on the face of it, an unremarkable find.

But for the ethnic Senu indigenous group living around this area it symbolised the anguish they felt over the death of their chief, Luis Manuel Martinez Velasquez.

He was allegedly murdered (there has been no court case) by unknown gunmen on 13 May this year in a small village three hours' drive from the city of Caucasia, in northern Colombia.

A local villager told me he had covered the chief with that very piece of cloth "because it was hot that day". The same villager said he had seen seven bullet holes in the body.

"He was a good friend," said another man, as he wiped away the tears flowing down his cheeks. "We are a close-knit community. It's so hard for us that he is gone."

But the cloth may also symbolise a failure of the legal and judicial authorities in this part of Colombia to take the killing seriously.

In any thorough police investigation, a seemingly bloody piece of cloth found next to a dead body would surely be a key potential piece of evidence in a court case.

The cloth lay just a few metres from the place where villagers said the chief had fallen.

Did the police not find it? The cloth was found easily by villagers poking around the scene when I went there. So it does seem possible, at the very least, that the crime scene was not sealed off or studied in any serious way.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8284040.stm>

The collective wealth of the richest 400 Americans has fallen by $300bn (£187bn) over the past year, according to the latest Forbes 400 rich list.

With downturn in the financial markets and wider economy taking its toll, this is an annual decline of 19%.

Out of the 400 people on the list, business magazine Forbes estimates that 314 saw their wealth decline.

It was only the fifth time since the Forbes 400 was first compiled in 1982 that the collective wealth has fallen.

The second richest person on the list - celebrated investor Warren Buffet - saw the biggest financial decline over the past year, losing an estimated $10bn.

The assets at Sir Allen's banking empire have been frozen since the start of the year after he was accused of running an $8bn fraud.

Sir Allen has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and continues to be held in detention ahead of his trial.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates remains top of the list, worth an estimated $50bn.

Of the 10 richest Americans, third place Lawrence Ellison was the only one to see his wealth remain unchanged. He is worth an estimated $27bn. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8283458.stm>

As China prepares to mark the 60th anniversary of Communist rule, the BBC's World Affairs Editor, John Simpson, reflects on the extraordinary transformation of the country and its people.

In the 60 years since Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the Communist state, China has seen more changes than almost anywhere else on earth.

In Xi Bai Xin, on the northern edge of Beijing, I met an old man who has experienced it all.

His name is Mr Wang and he is 78 years old. When I spoke to him, he was standing at a market stall heaped high with produce, appraising the "si gua" - big vegetables like outsized courgettes.

The changes he has seen include: the establishment of Marxism-Leninism and the collectivisation of the land; the appalling upheavals of the Cultural Revolution; the great famine that killed millions; the alleged coup headed by Mao's favourite, Lin Biao, and his escape and death when it failed and the rise of the radical leftist Gang of Four.

Then Mao's own death, followed a month later by the Gang of Four's arrest; the remarkable programme of modernisation spear-headed by Deng Xiaoping and the doomed attempt to get rid of him and establish greater democracy, which ended with the Tiananmen massacre.

Most important of all, he has seen the way a backward peasant society has transformed itself into the greatest manufacturing economy in human history.

Naturally, all Mr Wang wanted to talk about was the vegetables on the market stalls. "We've never had as much food as this before," he said proudly, and shuffled away. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8281431.stm>

Universities have been warned against "complacency" over standards, in a review commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

The report calls for reforms in the system of external examiners and the university watchdog, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA).

It follows a highly-critical report from MPs which said there were inadequate safeguards on standards.

After keeping us waiting longer than a diva with a headache, potentially seminal legislation on climate change has finally made it to the floor of the US Senate.

Cue bouquets from people who want the US to get intimately involved in tackling the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

Cue also brickbats, though - both from industry groups that believe the Boxer-Kerry bill will scupper US competitiveness, and from green groups who see it as promising too little too late.

"The losers would be millions of Americans and American companies," rails the American Petroleum Institute (API).

On the other side, the bill "falls far short of the minimum emissions reductions scientists say are necessary from a big and wealthy polluter like the US," counters Greenpeace.

These divergent views reflect a real schism in US politics - very different from the near-complete consensus within western European nations, for example, that major carbon cuts are necessary.

It is a divergence that could scupper, mortally weaken or seriously delay the bill - and with it, potentially, remove any chance of agreeing a new UN climate treaty by the end of the year. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8283655.stm>

Mothers who smoke during pregnancy put their children at greater risk of psychotic symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations, a study suggests.

A UK survey of 12-year-olds found those whose mothers had smoked were 20% more likely to suffer such problems.

The researchers suggested tobacco exposure in the womb may affect the child's brain development, but admitted further study of the issue was needed.

The research by Cardiff, Nottingham, Bristol and Warwick universities was part of a long-running study known as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children looking at how genetics and the environment affects health. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8283723.stm>

A study of the global state of broadband has put the UK 25th out of 66 countries in terms of the quality and reach of its networks.

The research for Cisco found that countries such as Latvia and Bulgaria were better prepared than the UK for next-generation net applications.

South Korea and Japan continue to dominate the league table, largely due to their commitment to fast networks.

In South Korea, for example, the government has promised universal speeds of up to 1Gbps (gigabit per second) by 2012.

Despite not being ready for future applications, the UK was well placed to cope with today's network demands, the study found.

"It can be a bit misleading to look at the rankings. The important thing is whether the broadband quality of a country is good enough for today's needs and the UK falls well within this category," said Joanne Hughes, Cisco's communication manager.

"We forecast the UK will improve because of things such as cable networks being upgraded and the Digital Britain report focusing on next generation access," she said.

The study was conducted jointly by Oxford University's Said Business School and Spain's University of Oviedo's Department of Applied Economics.

British archaeologists have unearthed an amphitheatre at a ancient port outside Rome which may have played host to emperors such as Hadrian and Trajan.

The team, led by the University of Southampton, say the arena could have held up to 2,000 people and been used for gladiator games or animal baiting.

It was found inside a gigantic imperial-style palace within the well-preserved old harbour of Portus.

The excavation team, which also included archaeologists from Cambridge University, has spent two years at Portus, about 20 miles (32km) from the Italian capital.

They worked in collaboration with the British School at Rome on the first large-scale dig at Portus.

The ancient gateway to the Mediterranean Sea, which is twice the size of the port of Southampton, supplied the centre of the Roman Empire with food, slaves, wild animals and building materials for hundreds of years.

The extraordinary true story of a Malawian teenager who transformed his village by building electric windmills out of junk is the subject of a new book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.

Self-taught William Kamkwamba has been feted by climate change campaigners like Al Gore and business leaders the world over.

His against-all-odds achievements are all the more remarkable considering he was forced to quit school aged 14 because his family could no longer afford the $80-a-year (£50) fees.

When he returned to his parents' small plot of farmland in the central Malawian village of Masitala, his future seemed limited.

The teenager had a dream of bringing electricity and running water to his village.

The need for action was even greater in 2002 following one of Malawi's worst droughts, which killed thousands of people and left his family on the brink of starvation.

Fascinated by science, his life changed one day when he picked up a tattered textbook and saw a picture of a windmill.

Mr Kamkwamba told the BBC News website: "I was very interested when I saw the windmill could make electricity and pump water.

"I thought: 'That could be a defence against hunger. Maybe I should build one for myself'."

When not helping his family farm maize, he plugged away at his prototype, working by the light of a paraffin lamp in the evenings.

"Many, including my mother, thought I was going crazy," he recalls. "They had never seen a windmill before."

Neighbours were further perplexed at the youngster spending so much time scouring rubbish tips.

"People thought I was smoking marijuana," he said. "So I told them I was only making something for juju [magic].' Then they said: 'Ah, I see.'"

Mr Kamkwamba, who is now 22 years old, knocked together a turbine from spare bicycle parts, a tractor fan blade and an old shock absorber, and fashioned blades from plastic pipes, flattened by being held over a fire.

"I got a few electric shocks climbing that [windmill]," says Mr Kamkwamba, ruefully recalling his months of painstaking work.

The finished product - a 5-m (16-ft) tall blue-gum-tree wood tower, swaying in the breeze over Masitala - seemed little more than a quixotic tinkerer's folly.

But his neighbours' mirth turned to amazement when Mr Kamkwamba scrambled up the windmill and hooked a car light bulb to the turbine.

As the blades began to spin in the breeze, the bulb flickered to life and a crowd of astonished onlookers went wild.

The global economy is expanding again and financial conditions have improved significantly, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said.

But in its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF said the "pace of recovery is expected to be slow".

It added that the recovery is likely to be "insufficient to decrease unemployment for quite some time".

On Wednesday, the IMF cut its forecast for the amount that banks are likely to lose in bad loans and investments.

The total it expects banks to lose between 2007 and 2010 is now $3.4tn (£2.1tn), down from its previous estimate of $4tn.

Children who eat sweets and chocolate every day are more likely to be violent as adults, according to UK researchers.

The Cardiff University study involving 17,500 people is the first into effects of childhood diet on adult violence.

It found 10-year-olds who ate sweets daily were significantly more likely to have a violence conviction by age 34.

Researchers suggested they had not learnt to delay gratification, but other experts said already "difficult" children might be given more sweets.

The researchers looked at data on around 17,500 people and found that 69% of the participants who were violent at the age of 34 had eaten sweets and chocolate nearly every day during childhood, compared to 42% who were non-violent. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8281147.stm>

A farmer has been crowned Bangladesh's champion rat catcher of 2009 after leading a team which he says killed more than 80,000 rodents in a month.

Mokhairul Islam was awarded a colour television at a ceremony attended by 500 farmers and officials in Dhaka.

He told the BBC he had disposed of 83,450 rats - more than double the tally set for all of last year.

The authorities launched the annual competition in an attempt to reduce the amount of crops eaten by rats.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said that it had reached no plea bargaining agreement with BAE, and would ask the Attorney General to prosecute it.

The case refers to allegations BAE paid millions of pounds to win contracts from several countries.

BAE admitted last year that it had not always met the top ethical standards. It said it had been working with regulators to help the investigation.

A BAE spokesman said the firm was "providing access to people, information and premises whenever requested".

A separate investigation into BAE by the SFO was dropped in 2007 after it was decided that national security was at risk.

The senior UN envoy removed from his post in Afghanistan has told the BBC his dismissal sent "a terrible signal" to the world about the organisation.

Peter Galbraith said he believed he had been removed because of a dispute with his superior over how to handle fraud allegations in the country's elections.

He said that in not addressing the "extensive" evidence of fraud, the UN had failed its Afghan mandate.

Mr Galbraith told BBC's World Tonight that he had great respect for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, but that he disagreed with his decision to remove him from his post.

"Not just on personal ground, but because I think it sends a terrible signal when the UN removes an official because he was concerned about fraud in a UN-sponsored and funded election," he said.

Mr Galbraith said he had seen "very extensive evidence of fraud" in August's president elections and had had "a sharp disagreement" with his superior, Kai Eide, about how to address it.

He wanted to present the evidence to the Afghan Election Complaints Commission for further investigation, he said, but Mr Eide "did not want this information disseminated".

Mr Galbraith said that when he intervened, President Hamid Karzai complained and Mr Eide "decided he would support Karzai, who would be the beneficiary of the fraudulent ballots".

"He didn't want the UN staff to talk about it, he didn't want us to discuss issues, for example of turnout, with the ambassadors in Kabul because we knew the turnout was very low in the southern provinces although a very large number of votes were in fact being reported from those areas.

"Later, when the evidence of the fraud was inescapable he did talk about it but he's consistently minimised it," he said.

The UN rejected the claims that Mr Eide had played down allegations of electoral fraud and sided with Mr Karzai.

Mr Eide has not offered details of the dispute, but has spoken of the need to avoid any impression of foreign interference in the election process. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8284123.stm>

At least 529 people are now known to have died in a powerful quake that struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Wednesday, the government says.

Rescuers struggled in heavy rain on Thursday to find survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings.

More than 400 people have been seriously injured, and the death toll is expected to rise, officials say.

The 7.6-magnitude quake struck close to the city of Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province.

The earthquake brought down hundreds of buildings, including hospitals, schools and shopping malls, cut power lines and triggered landslides.

The social affairs ministry gave the latest confirmed death toll of 529, but Rustam Pakaya, head of the health ministry's disaster centre in Jakarta, said: "Our prediction is that thousands have died."

The European Commission's competition authorities have raised concerns about the transatlantic plans of British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia.

The Oneworld alliance members want to operate as a joint business on flights between the EU and North America.

The Commission has sent its Statement of Objections to the airlines, and they now have the chance to respond before a competition decision is reached.

The Commission confirmed that it was still looking into similar plans for co-operation by Star Alliance members Lufthansa, Continental, United and Air Canada and between Skyteam members Air France/KLM and Delta/Northwest. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8286403.stm>

The recent discovery of water on the Moon by India's inaugural lunar mission almost never happened because of a twin helping of good old-fashioned red tape and lingering Cold War suspicions, reports science writer Pallava Bagla.

Hidden behind the euphoria of the find is a less publicised tale of complex back room dealings between Indian and American space science teams.

Back in 2004, scientists from the two countries were eager to collaborate, but the Bureau of Export Control in the US did not share this enthusiasm. In fact it was seen by some on the Indian side as being singularly obstinate.

It is accused of not being willing to clear the paperwork that would allow sophisticated American-made instruments to be airlifted to Bangalore for the mission.

It is also accused of using "all the tricks in it is pockets" to scuttle the operation before then US President George W Bush reportedly intervened to make sure this did not happen.

It is important to remember that the Moon mission was planned and executed well before the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal was finalised in 2008, a historic moment prior to which there was much suspicion between the two countries.

Back in 2005, in initiating its collaboration with the Americans, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) decided to forget the two sides' rocky past. India had been denied access to technology under US sanctions imposed after nuclear tests in 1974.

Even today, many Indian space laboratories continue to languish on a dreaded US blacklist.

The $100m Chandrayaan project was an Indian mission with international partners. On board India used a guest instrument from Nasa, a mineral mapper.

This is a laser printer-sized, 9kg device that beamed images of the wet lunar landscape. Another Nasa instrument, a small radar called a MiniSAR, was also flown aboard the Indian mission.

Isro decided not to charge its guests for this 400,000km (248,548-mile) journey. The international instruments were all flown free to the Moon.

The only expectation Delhi had in return for this agreement was that the scientific data collected from the guest instruments would be shared with Indian researchers.

Paul Watkinson and Barrie Wynd have done about the coolest thing you can do with a computer.

The pair are among the elite of the UK's overclocking community. These folks are not satisfied to use a PC as it is delivered from the factory. Instead, they look for ways to supercharge it.

Typically these tweaks are applied to the core processor because the faster that runs then, usually, the faster the computer can complete all the tasks it is being asked to do.

It is known as "overclocking" because every chip has a clock speed, measured in gigahertz (Ghz) or megahertz (Mhz), which describes how fast it completes a basic operation.

A chip with a clock speed of one gigahertz completes one billion "ticks" per second.

Clock speed is a crude measure of the overall number crunching ability of a PC, but is accepted as shorthand for the horsepower a chip can muster.

As its name implies, overclocking is all about running a chip faster than its basic or stock speed.

Overclocking involves putting a bigger voltage across a chip and means it generates lots more heat.

"A product is designed with a certain thermal restraint and to use a certain amount of voltage," said Mr Watkinson. "Stock voltages are 1.1 volts."

"We're putting 1.6 and 1.7 volts through them so we have to bring the cooling down very low to compensate."

Businesses are being warned they could be breaking the law if staff watch live TV on their computers when the firm does not have a TV licence.

Shops, offices and other workplaces could be fined up to £1,000, the TV Licensing authority says.

The law covers live transmissions online and does not apply to catch-up services such as those on the iPlayer.

If watching via mobiles and laptops that are battery operated, they will be covered by the owner's home TV licence.

The situation changes if equipment is plugged in - as it usually is in offices. "At that point, you need a licence," says Ian Fannon from TV Licensing. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8285474.stm>

Above one of the narrow streets that wind through al-Ataba, in downtown Cairo, there is a street sign that reads Harat al-Yahoud - the Alley of the Jews.

It's a signpost to a period in Egypt's history when this neighbourhood was filled with Jewish families.

Historically, the Jews of Egypt were a significant part of the intellectual and business classes; they sent their children to private schools and controlled many of Egypt's largest banks and businesses.

But following the revolution in the 1950s, that brought Jamal Abdel Nasser to power, most of those businesses were confiscated by the state.

Houses were abandoned as tensions with Israel grew and today there are very few Jews still remaining in Cairo.

It's recently undergone some much needed restoration but the secrecy that surrounds projects like this reveals that in reality there is still enormous mistrust, even hatred, that exists for anything connected to Israel - and that includes Jewish culture. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8285728.stm>

The small black fish swim around the tank; gracefully gliding back and forth with little discernable pattern.

Then, barely audible over the watery whirr of the marine laboratory, a low buzz sounds.

And a few seconds later, the scene is transformed as the fish crowd into a small area, corralling themselves into a tightly packed ball.

"Now we drop some food into the feeding tube," says Scott Lindell, who is running the experiment.

Mr Lindell is the director of the scientific aquaculture programme at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. And for the last few years, he has been training fish.

Just as 19th Century scientist Ivan Pavlov conditioned dogs to associate the sound of a bell with the prospect of food, Mr Lindell's black sea bass associate a 280Hz tone emitted from an underwater speaker with food, and respond by gathering in a partitioned "feeding zone".

Currently, offshore fish farms use cages or nets to enclose fish, where they are regularly fed and then harvested.

He explains: "We are trying to train fish so that we don't have to use cages to confine them, so that they can forage for natural food as well as the food that we offer them.

"It would keep them in a general area, and you could eventually recapture them and take them to market.

To test this, last year Mr Lindell moved his experiments out to the ocean - along with about 4,200 tagged black sea bass.

Mr Lindell says: "We stocked the fish into what we call an aquadome: basically a hemisphere anchored to the sea floor - it's about 32ft across and 16ft high (10m by 5m)."

At first, the scientists covered the dome with a tight mesh, locking the fish inside while they underwent their rigorous sound-training regime with the help of an underwater speaker. This took about four weeks.

"At that point, we took some of the 1in-mesh (3cm) off the cage, and replaced it with a 3in-mesh (8cm)," Mr Lindell continues.

"And that allowed some of our smaller fish to swim out, and it kept most of the predators from getting into the cage."

At first, the fish began to forage outside of the aquadome, moving in and out at the prompt of the sound, just as the researchers had hoped.

"But then we start seeing these bluefish circling our cage. And these are notorious for being ravenous and ruthless hunters," he says.

"Very frustratingly, we went back day after day to find these fish still showing up at the cage, and we couldn't for the life of us call the black sea bass back.

"They were scared to death - we went diving, and we could see them amongst the rocks, but nothing was going to make them run that gauntlet between the rocks and the cage when it would put their lives at risk."

When the team caught one of the bluefish and slit open its belly, they discovered 12 tiny tags - the fish that they had been attached to had already been digested.

Mr Lindell adds: "It goes to show that we can provide all sorts of positive enforcement, but it only takes a little bit of negative enforcement to undo it."

He explains: "It is the same problem that sheep farmers have - if you don't have fencing, then they need to have some kind of protection against predators. So with sheep, people have sheep dogs.

"We need to find the equivalent in terms of what would protect our 'herd of fish' if they were not protected by the confines of the cage."

And a shark might just be the answer, he says. Something like mako shark that has a taste for bluefish.

He says: "I can't imagine us training a mako shark the way you would train a killer whale.

"But it could be as simple as having a fibreglass, mako shark look-alike that is mechanically driven, that could swim around and around the cage, keeping the bluefish away."

This summer, Mr Lindell and his team returned to the spot where the aquadome experiment had taken place.

They wanted to see if any of his black sea bass had survived the onslaught of the bluefish and if they still associated the sound with the prospect of a tasty reward.

"But we only had about 4ft (1m) of visibility, and to the best of our knowledge we did not see any black sea bass streaming back a year later as I'd hope. Although the odds of those fish being in that spot a year later would have been small."

Despite the problems he experienced during last year's experiment, Mr Lindell still believes trained fish could benefit fish farms.

And as well as looking into predator defence, he is also looking at the feasibility of training different fish and employing acoustic ranching in different locations.

An experiment that he carried out this summer revealed that a Pavlovian response could be prompted in wild striped bass - and he believes other fish can also be trained.

He says: "We are now asking what fish species in what geographical areas could be more suitable for this application.

"It might be that this makes more sense in reservoirs, for instance, which have a more limited flora and fauna - you wouldn't have to worry so much about intrusion of predators."

He adds: "I think it definitively has some possibilities in terms of fisheries management or aquaculture but it has to be the right place and we obviously have to avoid potential problems with predators." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8283701.stm>

Designers of a bra that turns into gas masks and a team who found that named cows produce more milk were among the winners of the 2009 Ig Nobel prizes.

The aim of the awards is to honour achievements that "first make people laugh and then make them think".

The peace prize went to a Swiss research team who determined whether it is better to be hit over the head with a full or empty bottle of beer.

A surveillance state, with cameras on every street is commonplace but now Big Business is also turning to Big Brother.

Face recognition, behaviour analysing surveillance cameras, biometric profiling and the monitoring and storing of our shopping patterns has made snooping into our habits, movements and private lives ever easier.

Dismayed at its shrinking power to market to us via traditional media or even the internet, the private sector is now proposing to reach potential customers in ways that critics say should have us all concerned.

"There is an enormous pent-up demand for personalised location advertising, whether it is on your cellphone or PDA, on your radio in your car, or on the billboards you walk by on the streets and inside stores," says Bruce Schneier, chief security technology officer of BT.

"This is yet another technological intrusion into privacy. And like all such intrusions, it will be taken as far as the owner of that intrusion finds it profitable." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8280564.stm>

A bid to force publication of a review by the BBC of its Middle East coverage has been rejected in the High Court.

London lawyer Steven Sugar wanted the Balen report, which was drawn up in 2004, to be revealed under the Freedom of Information Act.

But Mr Justice Irwin ruled that, as the material was held "for the purposes of journalism, art or literature", the corporation had no duty to disclose it.

The judgement followed requests for budget details of the BBC's news and sport coverage as well as programmes including EastEnders and Top Gear.

In 2004, senior news editor Malcolm Balen examined hundreds of hours of television and radio broadcasts to compile the 20,000-word report.

Mr Sugar, from Putney, south London, wanted it to be part of the debate about alleged anti-Israeli bias at the BBC.

He has argued that the Freedom of Information Act was badly drafted and prevented disclosure of material which should be publicly available.

But the BBC said the report was always intended as an internal review of programme content, to inform future output.

It has said it was vital for independent journalism that debates among its staff about how it covers stories do not have to be opened up to the public gaze.

In his judgment on the Steven Sugar case, the judge said he had taken account of the fact that the BBC was a public body under the Act which was publicly funded, adding that there was a public interest in accessing information about its activities.

But he also said there was a public interest in preserving the freedom of journalism as well as creative and artistic activity.

He told the court: "Different views may legitimately be taken about these questions, particularly at the margins or where the principles collide.

"The resolution is for Parliament, not for the courts or the tribunal. The resolution is contained within the proper meaning of the language of the statute."

Welcoming the ruling, a spokesman for the corporation said: "The BBC's position is that free and impartial journalism is vital to our viewers and listeners and is at the heart of public service broadcasting.

"If we are not able to pursue our journalism freely and have honest debate and analysis over how we are covering important issues, then how effectively we can serve the public will be diminished."

After initially being dismissed by the Information Commissioner, Mr Sugar's request to see the report gained the backing of the Information Tribunal.

The BBC's subsequent appeal against that decision was upheld by the High Court in 2007, backed by the Appeal Court the following year.

The High Court and Appeal Court supported the BBC, saying that the case fell outside the scope of the act and that the Information Tribunal had no jurisdiction.

However, the Law Lords ruled that the tribunal did have jurisdiction, and that the High Court must reconsider the case based on the other issues raised in the BBC's defence.

In a separate ruling, the judge said the same principles applied in respect of information about spending by the BBC as in the Sugar case.

His judgement came after arguments between lawyers for the BBC and Information Commissioner Christopher Graham following requests for disclosure.

These included a January 2005 request from the Belfast Telegraph for details of how much the BBC spent on its Northern Ireland news coverage; a 2006 request from the Observer about how much the BBC paid for the rights to cover the Turin winter Olympics; a request by Mr Arthur Trice for the staff costs of "your successful soap EastEnders"; and a May 2006 Evening Standard request for the budgets of Top Gear, EastEnders and Newsnight.

The US economy lost 263,000 jobs in September, which was more than had been expected, according to official non-farm payrolls figures.

The jobless rate rose to a fresh 26-year high of 9.8% from August's figure of 9.7%.

There was more bad news from the Labor Department, which revised its figures for July and August to show 13,000 more jobs lost than previously reported.

The economy as a whole is expected to have grown in the past three months, but recovery in the jobs market tends to lag behind the rest of the economy. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8287216.stm>

UK experts say they have found a way of predicting which thalassaemia patients are going to develop heart failure.

The technique uses a magnetic resonance scanner to measure the level of iron in the heart, which builds to life-threatening levels in some patients.

The study, published in the journal Circulation, suggests the technique leads to a 71% reduction in deaths.

Thalassaemia is an inherited disorder of the blood system which causes a lack of haemoglobin.

A government spokesman said it could significantly help in the management of people with thalassaemia.

But even though there are more than 14,000 homeless people in Las Vegas, it is easy to spend a weekend in Sin City and never see signs of a crisis.

Most tourists take in Vegas from the interior of a casino - slot machines, blackjack tables, cocktail waitresses in impossibly tiny outfits.

If you are willing to pay the price of admission, a lift can transport you to more excess upstairs - rooftop pools and lavish suites.

But what if there were a lift that descended below the sunken lounges, past kitchens and utility closets, through layers of concrete, into the ground beneath the casinos?

Here, you would see another, very different, version of the city: the storm drains.

Matt O'Brien, a Las Vegas writer, has been exploring this underworld for several years. In 2007, he published a book, Beneath the Neon, about exploring the 300 miles of tunnels that criss-cross beneath the strip.

The evening I meet him, he is wearing heavy boots, and carrying a backpack and industrial-sized flashlight that could double as a weapon.

"I've been exploring these storm drains for more than five years," he says, sloshing through muck and gravel that blanket the tunnel floor.

"I think I know these storm drains better than anyone who doesn't actually live in them. And I know the storm drain system probably - and this is nothing to brag about - better than anyone else."

It is after 9pm on a weekday night. Above, the Vegas strip is coming to riotous life.

Gamblers are laying bets, showgirls are flourishing their feathers. Below, in utter darkness, the storm drains echo with the faint sounds of dripping water.

At one point, the tunnel widens to form a chamber. A flashlight reveals the plump, almost illegible cursive of graffiti lettering covering the walls - beautiful colours and designs.

"This is one of the underground art galleries that I discovered down in the storm drains," Mr O'Brien says.

"There's always the butterflies," he says. "There's always that apprehension when you walk into a storm drain. Just because you've been in the drain the day before, that doesn't mean it's going to be the same environment the next day.

"I've met people down in the drains - you'll come down the next day, and all of a sudden, you know, they'll tell you to screw off. They'll...make it clear they don't want to talk to you today."

Air traffic control systems are back up and running after an earlier computer breakdown at Prestwick grounded transatlantic flights from UK airports.

Some travellers may still experience delays due to the problem at Prestwick's air traffic control hub.

A spokeswoman for NATS, responsible for the UK's air traffic management, said engineers had resolved the problem.

Airports are now working to clear a backlog of flights which had been unable to leave due to the fault.

BBC transport correspondent Richard Scott said the computer had gone "zero rated" which meant it could not process any routings and everything had to be done manually. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8288313.stm>

More South Asian men married to British women are becoming the victims of domestic violence, it has been revealed.

The National Men's Advice Line found 9% of calls for help to its service last year were made by men originally from countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Pakistani Mahmood Muhammad (not his real name) married a British-born Asian woman four years ago. Her family promised him that he could finish his degree in Pakistan before joining her to live permanently in West Yorkshire.

His mother thought his future in-laws were an honourable family, so also decided to let his sister marry his wife's brother in the UK.

After marrying, Mahmood, who is in his 30s, travelled to visit his wife in the UK for a two-week holiday. He planned to return to Pakistan to finish studying. But hours after stepping off the plane his passport was confiscated by his wife's family and he was told he would not be going back.

His brother-in-laws threatened to harm him and his sister if he did not comply with their wishes, and by the end of his first week in Yorkshire he was being forcibly taken to factories in search of work.

He said: "All they wanted was someone to earn money for them. I was being treated like an animal.

"All my dignity and self-respect had been taken away and I was also worried about the threats to my sister. I was powerless to do anything to stop it."

Due to feelings of shame Mahmood decided not to tell his family back in Pakistan.

"My wife would wake me up in the middle of the night and beat me, demanding money, and when I did not have any, my brother-in-laws would come and punch me and beat my back with iron bars. It was a living hell."

For four years he was not allowed to meet his own sister, who lived at a separate address nearby, or even phone her, and the only contact they had was on a handful of occasions. She was also being beaten.

On one occasion, while she was pregnant, she was thrown down stairs, and on another she was punched in the face and pushed into a television.

The Pennine Domestic Violence Group, in Yorkshire, is now helping Mahmood to rebuild his life. In the past two years staff have noticed that more Asian men who are victims of domestic violence are beginning to leave their wives and seek help.

Acting director Rebecca Hirst said: "Although numbers are low, we know there are many men out there who are wanting help."

National helpline, The Mankind Initiative, said 7% of its clients last year came from an Asian background.

The National Men's Advice Line has also begun fielding more calls from abused men - in 2008, 89 of its 946 calls were from men of South Asian origin, and it fears there are many more suffering in silence.

Phone line co-ordinator Ippo Panteloudakis said: "We believe the number of Asian men is far higher than our figures suggest, because many Asian men don't access mainstream services for fear of being identified or because they are under cultural pressures not to admit they have a problem."

Karma Nirvana, a group which helps abused Asian men and women, believes most men do not seek help as many victims marry cousins and can share the same uncles, aunts and even grandparents.

Project team leader Shazia Qayum said: "Men would feel embarrassed to admit that they were having problems and choose to suffer in silence for the sake of respect."

"We are seeing the tip of a very large iceberg emerging, and eventually as this issue becomes more widely accepted, more and more men will come forward."

Mahmood is all too familiar with how difficult cultural pressures can make it to leave a violent relationship.

"I know many other Asian men who are suffering, but how can we just leave and go back home, it would be so shameful for us and our families."

Three months ago Mahmood was beaten in the street by his sister's husband. After she ran out to plead with him to stop, the siblings managed to get into a passing car and escape from their spouses. But they both left their children behind.

Mahmood said: "I have two daughters, but have not seen my youngest child who was only born recently. My sister has managed to get custody of her children, but I will have to endure a long legal process to see mine again.

"I would have been better off living in Pakistan. At least then I would not have been mentally, physically and verbally abused over a period of four long years." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8286744.stm>

Global Economics-21

Car firms disagree about electric future

Silicon Valley 'seeing revival'

'Gene cure' for colour blindness

Inside Chicago's dog fighting underworld

'Safe' lead levels harm children

Airbus upbeat about plane demand

Airline in $1bn air mile sell-off

'Merkel factor' could decide German vote

Iran 'does not need' nuclear arms

German fat cat turns to hot dogs

Daggers drawn in Argentine media fight

US objects to Google book deal

Arctic trail blazers make history

Tuvans keen to protect traditions

Watermelon 'has same effect as Viagra'

Pound plumbs five-month euro low

Bold Rwanda takes broadband leap

Charge students more, say bosses

Dementia burden 'underestimated'

Total issues oil shortage warning

Dell to acquire Perot for $3.9bn

'Open internet' rules criticised

Who runs the global economy?

EU probe 'costs Oracle millions'

Climate change - where the centre leads

G20 'to call for economy balance'

Diary: Guatemala food crisis

Bank of America faces bonus trial

S Korea 'grand bargain' for North

Fear level rises as LRA rebels return

Gaming milestone for Elite game

Shootout shuts US-Mexico crossing

Iran police 'target mannequins'

'Jungle' immigrants tell stories

Intel on offensive in EU case

Crew 'welcomed' Russian 'pirates'

Trial HIV vaccine cuts infection

Huge Anglo-Saxon gold hoard found

Spacecraft see 'damp' Moon soils

Rare gorillas make Facebook debut

G20: Pledge by pledge

'Store wars' as John Lewis opens

Saudis open hi-tech science oasis

'Tweeting' medics expose patients

Future is TV-shaped, says Intel

Cayman Islands fears as debts grow

Emerging economies 'get new role'

Butterfly 'GPS' found in antennae

Iran 'concealed nuclear facility'

Frida Kahlo 'fakes' investigated

US town bans Libyan leader's tent

Mobile phones 'harm blood cells'

Food business taking off in Peru

Life as a Sri Lankan war refugee

EU treaty stirs Irish grassroots

New tip rules 'could cost jobs'

India hails Moon mission 'find'

Will tough new G20 measures work?

Twitter confirms major cash boost

Venezuela summit criticises West

Iraq legacy for Afghan campaign

Gut worms protect against allergy

Cow dung cremations catch on in Bihar

Longing for end to 'dirty' war in Turkey

Summit protesters lack focus

Schools waste millions - report

Hamburg shippers calm amid downturn

Beatle's essay found 50 years on

Yen hits eight-month dollar high

The sartorial row on Savile Row

Orange announces UK iPhone deal

US 'to loosen' grip on internet

LHC gets warning system upgrade

Four degrees of warming 'likely'

British Asians 'outsourcing murder'

Working mums' children 'less fit'

School stars 'enjoy good health'

Schoolgirl dies after cancer jab

Life in one of China's last communes