Moments of Awareness

23 September 2010 Last updated at 20:35 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print Running: A race against gender By Lucy Proctor BBC Radio 4’s More or Less Lucy Proctor on the 13-mile run Can men and women ever compete fairly in a sport like running? Yes, but it requires a little bit of maths know-how. Continue reading the main story In today's Magazine The problem with e-fits 7 days quiz - a fashion show interloper Can men and women race fairly? What exactly is a harvest moon? "What time did you get?" It is the first question runners ask of each other wh...

24 September 2010 Last updated at 06:21 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print The problem with e-fits By Jon Kelly and Denise Winterman BBC News Magazine An e-fit of a burglary suspect that looks like he is wearing a lettuce on his head has caused much mirth in the media this week. Police say they had "technical issues" when doing it, but why is a good facial composite still so hard to do? Continue reading the main story How realistic are e-fits? Good or bad, facial composites are a vital tool for police investigating crimes. For many years they were drawn by hand, but most are now done using software like E-FIT, Pro-Fit and evoFIT. Composites are put together by a trained operator who asks a witness to describe the parts of a f...

24 September 2010 Last updated at 06:44 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print Sri Lankan president urges rethink on rules of war By Charles Haviland BBC News, Colombo President Mahinda Rajapaksa says there are "serious problems" with the rules of war The Sri Lankan president has called for a rethink on international rules governing the conduct of war. Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York, President Mahinda Rajapaksa stopped short of explicitly calling for the Geneva Conventions to be changed. Diaspora groups, meanwhile, have renewed calls for an international tribunal over the alleged war crimes committed by the security forces. The Sri Lankan government denies its side committed any war crimes. Speaking 16 months on from the military victory over the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels...

23 September 2010 Last updated at 19:06 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print US and Iran lead clash of world views at UN assembly By Jonathan Marcus BBC diplomatic correspondent Click to play Click to play Advertisement President Obama: "Each of us has a responsibility to do our part" The annual high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly is a place where US presidents have traditionally set out their world view, attempting to signal crucial shifts in Washington's international engagement. This year was no different; with President Barack Obama eager to stress the continuing US commitment to spreading prosperity and democracy even at a time of austerity. But this is a very different kind of democracy p...

23 September 2010 Last updated at 22:12 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print 'Uranium rush' prompts Grand Canyon fears By Leana Hosea BBC News, Arizona The Grand Canyon region is rich in high grade uranium used to produce nuclear fuel A new "gold rush" is under way in the American West, but this time the prospectors are out for another metal: uranium. The Grand Canyon region in the US state of Arizona holds one of the nation's largest concentrations of high grade uranium, the fuel for nuclear power. As global demand for nuclear power has increased so has interest in the metal and, across the south-west, companies are seeking permission to restart uranium mining. In the US, President Barack Obama has called for an increase in nuclear power to help reduce the country's dependence ...

Advertisement 24 September 2010 Last updated at 02:21 ET Help The Baikal underwater telescope NT-200 in Russia has been set up to capture elusive neutrino particles in a bid to unravel the secrets of the formation of the Universe. At 1.1km beneath the surface of the world's deepest lake and pointing towards the centre of the Earth, it is one of the most unusual telescopes on the planet. One of the physicists working on the project, Bair Shaibonov spoke about the several weeks each year he spends working on a remote scientific base on the shores of Baikal. via bbc.co.uk Posted via email from Peace Jaway

24 September 2010 Last updated at 15:26 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print Row over 'untouchable' Indian dog Sunita Jatav fed Sheru some leftover bread Police in India are investigating claims that a Dalit woman has been ordered to pay compensation to the high-caste owners of a dog she fed. The woman says the village council wants her to pay a fine of 15,000 rupees ($330) for feeding the dog, which the owners have now kicked out. They are reported to have said the dog is "untouchable", but deny being motivated by caste considerations. Although widespread, discrimination against Dalits is an offence in India. Dalits, who make up nearly 20% of the Indian population, say little has changed despite the government enacting various laws banning caste-based discrimination. 'He got very angry' The incident took place in Malikpur village i...

24 September 2010 Last updated at 15:45 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print Texas adopts decree rejecting 'pro-Islam' school books Supporters said the resolution was needed to warn publishers not to print "anti-Christian" books The Texas school board has adopted a resolution urging publishers to keep "pro-Islamic/anti-Christian" language out of textbooks in the state. Among other complaints, the non-binding decree says some textbooks devote more lines to Islam than to Christianity and print "whitewashes" of Islamic culture. Critics say it relies on a flawed reading of books that are out of use. In May, the panel adopted guidelines that critics said injected conservative political ideas into the curriculum. Texas is one of the largest textbook markets in the US, and a vote in favour of the resolution could carry considerable...

New figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show the value of Idaho's potato crop reached a record $855 million last year. That's an increase of nearly $22 million from 2008, according to the report the USDA released Thursday. Idaho Potato Commission President Frank Muir told the Idaho State Journal in Pocatello that the record value shows that 2009 had a positive ending for growers, despite challenges caused by price slumps and high yields. Idaho growers harvested 319,000 acres of potatoes last year and saw record yields of 411 hundredweight (the equivalent of 41,100 pounds) per acre. Many growers panicked when they saw those numbers and started shipping spuds too quickly, resulting in prices that were lower than the cost of production for most farmers. At the time, the Idaho Potato Commission urged growers to be patient and refrain from shipping their crops too fast. The advice paid off when prices rebounded over the past few months. "I think we did a go...

Razorbacks are rollin' back the Tide. :) Posted via email from Peace Jaway

24 September 2010 Last updated at 05:14 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print Dog dies from mystery Sherwood Forest illness Dog walkers in the area are being advised to keep their pets on a lead A dog is thought to be the latest victim of a mystery illness which killed several pets after they were walked in the Sherwood Forest area. Derek Broughton, of Lincoln, said one of his King Charles Spaniels died on Tuesday after visiting Clumber Park. In autumn last year, eight dogs died from symptoms including vomiting and diarrhoea. Natural England has ruled out man-made poisoning, and said it believes a natural phenomenon is to blame. Mr Broughton took his two dogs - both King Charles Spaniels - to the forest, along with his daughter's pet dog. He said: "We took them out into the woods at Clumber Park last Saturday morning. They all had a run around. We neve...

Click to play Click to play Advertisement Todd Reichert flew the craft by using a foot pump to flap its wings. Video courtesy of University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies A Canadian student inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's sketches says he has made the first sustained flight in a human-powered, wing-flapping aircraft. Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote Throughout history, countless men and women have dreamt of flying like a bird” End Quote Todd Reichert Pilot, Snowbird Todd Reichert's ornithopter is an engineless plane that stays aloft by flapping its wings like a bird. The craft, dubbed "Snowbird", flew 145m (476 feet) at the Great Lakes Gliding Club in Tottenham, Ontario. The Federation Aeronautique Internationale is expected to confirm the record at its meeting in October. Previous attempts Mr Reichert, a PhD student at the Universit...

24 September 2010 Last updated at 10:19 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print 'Sick prank' leaves cat dyed pink in Swindon Advertisement The RSPCA says the cat could be a lost pet which was the victim of a prank. The RSPCA have criticised a "sick prank" in which a cat had its fur dyed pink and was then thrown over a garden fence in Swindon. Officers are looking for the owner of the cat, which was found by a man in his garden in Wesley Street on 18 September. The two-year-old, who has been named Pink, is said to be in good health. However, vets have not been able to wash the dye out of her fur and she will have to wait for it to grow out. It is thought the naturally white domestic short-haired cat is either a stray or has been abandoned. This is because the fur around her nec...

24 September 2010 Last updated at 14:14 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print Neanderthals were able to 'develop their own tools' By Katia Moskvitch Science reporter, BBC News In is still unknown why Neanderthals went extinct Neanderthals were keen on innovation and technology and developed tools all on their own, scientists say. A new study challenges the view that our close relatives could advance only through contact with Homo sapiens . The team says climate change was partly responsible for forcing Neanderthals to innovate in order to survive. The research is set to appear in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory in December. "Basically, I am rehabilitating Neanderthals," said Julien Riel-Salvatore, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado in Den...

24 September 2010 Last updated at 20:02 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print Viagra won't work for you, low testosterone men warned By Philippa Roxby Health reporter, BBC News Low testosterone levels can be a sign of underlying health problems More than half the Viagra prescribed to men is not working, says an expert in sexual medicine. Dr Geoffrey Hackett, a consultant urologist, says men with erectile dysfunction could be "wasting hundreds of pounds on tablets" when their real issue is low testosterone. He was speaking at the launch of new guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of sexual disorders. The guidelines are published in the journals Maturitas and Human Fertility. Dr Hackett, sexual health specialist at Good Hope Hospital in Birmingham and former chairman of the British Soci...

24 September 2010 Last updated at 19:56 ET Share this page Facebook Share Email Print China's one-child policy - success or failure? By Weiliang Nie BBC Chinese Service After three decades, the drawbacks of the one-child policy are more and more apparent During the period that I grew up in China in the 1960s and 70s, Chinese families could have as many children as they liked. Many had four or five children. Some even had six or seven. My parents had four children. After the government started enforcing the rule of one child per family - often forcibly - my parents would sometimes jokingly remind me that I was an "exceeded quota person", meaning that under the one-child policy I would not have existed. Chairman Mao, who led China from 1949 until his death in 1976, regarded a fast-growing population as...

NEPTUNE ISLANDS, Australia (AFP) – "I hope the cage is as strong as a it looks," says diver James Hay, before jumping into an aluminium frame to swim with the ocean's most feared predator, the great white shark. Coming face-to-face with a powerful great white, which can measure up to six metres (20 feet) in length and has a reputation as a bloodthirsty man-eater, may be the stuff of nightmares for swimmers and surfers. But for Andrew Fox, who guides shark expeditions off South Australia, it's a chance to explain why the awesome creatures don't deserve their "Jaws" reputation and are in fact under threat from overfishing. "I think it's important to show these people that these sharks aren't the crazy man-killers that are often portrayed in a lot of the media," says Fox, who has been going out to observe the animals since he was seven. "I think it's important that people see that these are magnificent animals...

It's possible that bedbugs are simply the latest in a long string of public panics over epidemics that eventually proved to be manageable, from killer bees to bird flu. But that would not quite capture the grim mood of a big bedbug summit, held the past two days at a hotel near Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. More than 350 people gathered at the two-day event, which sold out five weeks in advance. One scientist showed, using DNA evidence, how the bugs hop blithely from continent to continent on clothing, carry-ons, backpacks and purses. Another tracked the eruption of bedbug colonies through a single multistory apartment building. Another flashed a photograph of a robust bedbug literally glistening with drops of poison rolling off its back. Judging by the number of note-taking exterminators at the summit, however, even pest-control professionals are still searching for tips. There is no perfect insecticide. Even if DDT were magically restored to the market, b...