WORLD NEWS: June 2011

Tuesday, 7 June 2011

Heavy flying Great Indian bustard faces extinction

By Matt Walker Editor, BBC Nature

Great Indian bustard (Image: Asad R Rahmani)

Male bustards can reach almost 15kg

One of the heaviest flying birds in the world is in danger of going extinct, conservationists are warning.

Great Indian bustards stand a metre tall and weigh up to 15kg, yet as few as 250 may now survive.
That is according to the latest edition of the IUCN Red List for Birds, which reports that the total number of threatened birds species has risen to 1253.
That means 13% of all surviving bird species are now threatened.
The 2011 edition of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List for Birds records the changing prospects for the world's bird species.
"In the space of a year another 13 bird species have moved into the threatened categories," said Jean-Christophe Vie, deputy director of the IUCN Global Species Programme.

A handful of birds vie for the title of the heaviest flier
While mute swans, Andean condors and storks are among the heaviest, various bustard species are also contenders
Weighing between 10 and 16kg, the European Great bustard and African Kori bustard are often quoted as the heaviest flying birds, with the Great Indian bustard not far behind, often weighing just short of 15kg

In all, 189 species are now considered to be Critically Endangered, including the Great Indian bustard.

The bustard was once widespread across the grasslands of India and Pakistan. But now its range is restricted to small isolated fragments, with its last stronghold in Rajasthan.
Other species on the brink of extinction include the Bahama oriole (Icterus northropi), also newly listed as Critically Endangered.
Recent surveys suggest that perhaps just 180 individuals of this black and yellow Caribbean bird may survive.
The orioles live in mature woodland, and nest in coconut palms, according to BirdLife International, an alliance of conservation groups that leads on putting together the Red List for birds.
The oriole is also threatened by the recent arrival of the Shiny cowbird (Molothrus bonariensis), a brood parasite that lays its eggs in other species' nests.
Some species are faring better than in past years.

The enigmatic Bahama oriole

For example, the Campbell Island teal (Anas nesiotis) has benefited from a massive programme to eradicate rats, plus captive-breeding of remaining individuals.
The species has now returned to New Zealand's Campbell Island, resulting in a reclassification of its threat status to Endangered.
Around the world, the greatest concentrations of threatened bird species occur in the forested tropics.
A disproportionately high number of threatened species, almost half, occur on islands, particularly oceanic islands far from land.
For seabirds, the greatest concentrations of threatened species are found in the southern oceans, notably around New Zealand.
In 2010, BirdLife confirmed the extinction of Alaotra grebe (Tachybaptus rufolavatus).
Over the last 500 years, invasive alien species have been partly or wholly responsible for the extinction of at least 65 bird species, according to BirdLife International.

Bahrain protests: Trial opens for 47 doctors and nurses

A sketch of the special security court provided by Bahrain's state news agency

Bahrain Protests

Dozens of doctors and nurses who treated injured protesters in Bahrain have appeared in court charged with attempting to topple the monarchy.

The 47 medics appeared in a special military court in Manama.
They have been held since March, when Bahrain declared an emergency law, which was only lifted last week.
Bahrain's mainly Shia protesters have been calling for democratic reforms and more rights for the country's Shia majority in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.
Hundreds of opposition supporters have been detained since March, when Bahrain's rulers called in military support from its Gulf Arab neighbours - mostly Saudi Arabia and the UAE - to suppress the protests.
More than 20 people were killed during the government's campaign to stifle the demonstrations. Two people have been sentenced to death for their part in the protests. Four have died in police custody.
Court restrictions

Charges against doctors and nurses

Taking part in illegal protests for criminal ends
Calling for the overthrow of the ruling system
Inciting hatred against the ruling system
Holding an un-authorised weapon
Occupation of the Salmaniya Medical Complex
Seizing medical equipment
Deliberately disseminating false stories and information on the injured

Only select journalists are allowed to cover the latest trials from inside the special security court, which has military and civilian judges.

In April, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) expressed concern about attacks on physicians, patients and unarmed civilians since protests began in February. It said dozens of medics have been arrested - some by masked men in the middle of the night.
The Bahraini authorities have denied targeting medics, saying some of Bahrain's main medical facilities "had been overrun by political and sectarian activity".
Since the lifting of the emergency law, small protests have been held in Shia villages, but they have been quickly dispersed by police using tear gas, rubber bullets, sound grenades and birdshot (small metal pellets), videos on YouTube appear to show.
Bahrain's ruler, King Hamad al-Khalifa, has announced that a national dialogue on reform will begin next month.

Skin cancer treatments revealed at conference

The new drugs improve the survival rates of patients with skin cancer

Patients with advanced skin cancer could benefit from two new treatments that extend life, a cancer meeting in Chicago has heard.

Scientists say a pill called Vemurafenib appears to give patients a greater chance of surviving longer than chemotherapy.
It was tested on a group of 675 patients with advanced melanoma.
Another drug, taken intravenously, called Ipilimumab, is said to give patients extra years of life.
The results were presented at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
During a trial, 84% of patients who took Vemurafenib pills twice a day were still alive six months later. This compares with 64% of those on standard chemotherapy.
The drug works by acting on a faulty gene, BRAF, found in half of terminally ill patients whose cancer has spread to other organs.

“Start Quote

This is the biggest breakthrough in melanoma treatment in more than 30 years”

End Quote Researcher Professor Richard Marais

The results were so impressive that the British experts running the trial stopped it early so they could switch all patients in the group over to Vemurafenib.

And trials showed the drug reduced the risk of the disease worsening by 74%, compared with chemotherapy.
Meanwhile, trial results from another study show that a one-course infusion treatment of Ipilimumab may extend the survival of patients with advanced melanoma.
'Enormous advance' Several patients have lived for years when they might otherwise have died in weeks or months, say investigators. At least one is still alive five years after receiving the treatment.

Click to play

Nell Barrie, from Cancer Research UK, says the cancer pill Vemurafenib is a 'very exciting' development.

Research is now being conducted to find out whether Vemurafenib could be used for other cancers, including ovarian, thyroid and bowel cancer.
Both treatments are now being assessed by European licensing bodies and could become available to UK patients within months, subject to approval.
Although it is unclear if the NHS would be able to afford to use these relatively expensive drugs that cost tens of thousands of pounds.
Professor Richard Marais, whose work at the Institute of Cancer Research demonstrated the importance of BRAF in melanoma, said: "This is the biggest breakthrough in melanoma treatment in more than 30 years.
"The results demonstrate for the first time that a targeted therapy can work in melanoma and will change our approach to treating this disease. It is an enormous advance in the field."
Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK's chief clinician, said: "For the first time, we have effective treatments becoming available for melanoma.
"Both show how the research we have been doing is feeding through into help for patients.
"It is a first step but a vitally important one, and it encourages us to redouble our efforts for people with this most dangerous type of skin cancer."
Malignant melanoma kills more than 2,000 people in the UK each year, and more than 11,000 people annually develop the disease.

Bosnian Serbs defensive in Mladic country

By Nick Thorpe BBC News, central Bosnia-Hercegovina

Exterior of Ratko Mladic's wartime headquarters in Han Pijesak

Gen Mladic's headquarters was tucked away in the mountains of central Bosnia

Mladic on trial

Ratko Mladic's wartime headquarters in Han Pijesak in central Bosnia is in ruins.

Cows graze on the grass in front of buildings littered with debris. The insulation has been torn from the walls, rubble and human excrement cover the floors.
In the officers' canteen I find a relief map of the Balkans, the cities and larger towns marked in red.
There is Sarajevo, the city his troops bombarded for three and a half years.
Just up the road beyond Han Pijesak is Srebrenica - a place notorious for the Bosnian Serbs' massacre of about 8,000 unarmed Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys in 1995.

In pictures: Mladic's heartland

In the top right corner, in the green flat fields of northern Serbia, there is the small village of Lazarevo, where Gen Mladic was arrested on 26 May without a struggle.

He is now in prison in The Hague, awaiting trial.
Looting Thunder rips open the sky like a mortar barrage.
Tucked away in the mountains of central Bosnia, this place was originally built to serve as the wartime Yugoslav army headquarters, in the case of attack by Nato or the Soviet Union.
Nato did flatten one or two of the buildings opposite while Gen Mladic was in charge in 1995, but most of the damage here has been done by looters.
They were looking for different treasures though - they missed his maps, the list of local phone numbers, and the little red manual on how to aim and fire 82mm guns.
Stukelja Dasa, a Bosnian Serb refugee from Olovo, 40km (25 miles) away through the mountains, lives today with her granddaughter in the sturdy wooden building which once served as a guardhouse.
There is no way for her to return to her old home - it was burnt down by the Bosniaks, she says, because her sons all served in the Bosnian Serb army.

Stukelja Dasa, Bosnian Serb refugee now living in the old guardhouse at Gen Mladic's wartime headquarters

Stukelja Dasa misses the pre-war times when ethnicity did not divide neighbours

She survives on 80 euros (£71) a month, but is delighted to get visitors.
She misses the time before the war, she says, when no-one worried about who was who, and you could still drink coffee with your neighbours.
'Our hero' Two men stop our car at the entrance to Ratko Mladic's home village, Bozanovici. But they wave us through, when they see I am accompanied by his neighbour, Branko Mandic.
We pass the red tin-roofed house Gen Mladic built for himself when he returned here as an army officer, to reach the house he was born in.
There is a wood-burning stove in each room, to take the edge off the mountain chill, and a family portrait on one wall - of his aunt, his uncle, and their daughter.
There are only three rooms, and a barn with two cows.
Mr Mandic is proud of Ratko Mladic, his former neighbour, like everyone here. And Srebrenica, I ask?
"The women and children and older people were all put on buses, and driven to safety. Those people who were younger, who had guns... were killed in the forests, in battles," he says.
"And after that, they brought all of them to the mass graves, to the same place. From all over Bosnia. To the same hole."
So no prisoners were killed, I ask.
"No, no, no. All those capable of carrying arms were in the forest."

Picture of Gen Mladic's aunt, uncle and their daughter

A family portrait hangs on one wall of Gen Mladic's old house in Bozanovici

In the nearby town of Kalinovik, Pantelija Curguz, president of the Bosnian Serb Veterans' Association, takes a different tack.
"Any man who is not convicted is innocent. We want him to have a fair trial," he says. "For us, he is still our commander, and our hero."
Is he not upset by the absence of Bosnian Serb leaders from his association's rallies?
"We don't insist on political support. This is our issue, as veterans. If politicians think they should support it - it's up to them."
'Myths of the past' Milorad Dodik, the all-powerful president of the Bosnian Serb Republic (Republika Srpska) may not have attended the rallies.
But he has proposed setting up a fighting fund of 50,000 euros to help defend Gen Mladic and other Bosnian Serbs accused of war crimes.
For Svetlana Cenic, an opposition leader in Banja Luka and outspoken critic of Mr Dodik, that is just evidence of nationalist manipulation.
She says: "To cover up the fact that Dodik and his party have stolen the people's money, they pretend to be defenders of the Serbian national interest, and they pretend that the Republika Srpska is in danger, which is not true."
And the public remain gullible, at the mercy of a media which the president and his people largely control, she says.
"They still want to believe in their myths of the past. They don't want to face the truth, no matter how many facts are presented in other countries, about the bombardment of Sarajevo, for example," she adds
One evening in Srebrenica, a small delegation of young people come looking for me.
"Please could you not just report on the war, the death and destruction," says Milena Nikolic, a Bosnian Serb who was 11 when the war started and now runs the town youth centre.
On a Friday night there is a "Battle of the Bands", with at least one - the Silver Stones - combining Bosniak and Serb musicians.
"We try not to talk about reconciliation, because it's a word which doesn't make sense to those who didn't experience the war," Ms Nikolic says.
"Instead, we work with music, with art and culture. People meet and make friends with each other on those terms."

Chorleywood: The bread that changed Britain

Comments (98)

In today's Magazine

For the past 50 years, a British food stuff has spread across the world to Australia, South Africa, South America, Turkey and even to supermarket shelves in France. But is the long life, plastic wrapped, sandwich loaf that was first created in Chorleywood a design classic or a crime against bread, asks David Sillito.

More than 80% of all loaves in Britain are now made the Chorleywood way.
Even the fresh crusty bread baked at your local supermarket is probably made the Chorleywood way.
The work of the scientists at the Chorleywood Flour Milling and Bakery Research Association laboratories in 1961 led to a new way of producing bread, making the average loaf in Britain 40% softer, reducing its cost and more than doubling its life.

25th November 1965: A line of baked loaves ready to be packed at the Wonderloaf Bakery, Tottenham, north London.

The move was good for British farmers growing low-protein wheat

What is more, each slice was uniform.
For its supporters, it was the innovation that pushed bread into the modern era.
"It is a process we invented and we should be very proud of it," says Gordon Polson, of the British Federation of Bakers. "UK bread is around the cheapest in the world."
The bread scientist, Stan Cauvain, who worked with the original inventors and has written the definitive work on the Chorleywood Process says they knew from the beginning they had changed baking forever.
"The inventors knew they were on to something special and it would have far reaching consequences."
Its origins lay in the late 1950s and the need to try to find a way for small bakers to compete with new industrial bakeries. The light brown "national loaf" during the long years of rationing had, for many consumers, outstayed its welcome. Soft, springy, white bread - that did not go stale quickly - was what the public wanted.

'Best food value in Britain'

"Already, thanks to the Chorleywood process, nearly half the wheat in our bread is British. The industry's current development programme could bring about a situation where British bread is made from an even higher proportion of British wheat - thus making the British loaf even better value for money in relation to world bread prices."
From a 1975 advertisement in The Times, issued by the Flour Advisory Bureau

The research bakers at Chorleywood discovered that by adding hard fats, extra yeast and a number of chemicals and then mixing at high speed you got a dough that was ready to bake in a fraction of the time it normally took.

It allowed bread to be made easily and economically with low protein British wheat.
But with industrial bakers quickly adopting the process, rather than helping small bakeries, the research at Chorleywood helped put thousands of them out of business.
But for some bread lovers, particularly the "artisan bread movement" anything Chorleywood is simply not real bread.
"This stuff is like cotton wool," says Paul Barker, who himself used to work as an industrial baker and sold the emulsifiers, enzymes and other chemicals used in modern baking.

Click to play

The classic white loaf - how it is made and what people think of it

He has now set up Cinnamon Square in Rickmansworth, a "theatre of baking" aimed at reinvigorating the old way of making bread.
The issue he says is about both taste and digestion. "Modern bread doesn't taste of bread," he says. "If it's not allowed to rise and prove naturally then it doesn't develop the proper taste."
There is also the matter of health. The Chorleywood loaf has twice the amount of yeast of a traditional loaf, it has enzymes and oxidants added and while certain chemical additives such as potassium bromate have been banned, Paul Barker and other bread campaigners believe it is behind the growth in the number of people who struggle to digest bread.
"Every day I have people who say they have given up eating bread and then find they don't have a problem with bread that's been allowed to develop slowly. My sourdough takes more than 70 hours to make."
Proving this, however, is another matter. Prof John Warner at Imperial College in London says there has been a marked increase in allergies and intolerance of wheat and bread over the last 50 years, just as there has been an increase in allergies to dust, nuts and dozens of other items.

20th Century history of bread

1928: First bread slicing machine, invented by Otto Rohwedder, exhibited at a bakery trade fair in the US
1930: Large UK bakeries take commercial slicers and sliced bread first appears in shops
1933: Around 80% of US bread is pre-sliced and wrapped. The phrase "the best thing since sliced bread" coined
1941: Calcium added to UK flour to prevent rickets
1942: The national loaf - much like today's brown loaf - introduced to combat shortage of white flour
1954: Conditions in bakeries regulated by the Night Baking Act
1956: National loaf abolished
1961: The Chorleywood Bread Process introduced

Source: The Federation of Bakers

However, three-quarters of people who believe they have an allergy or medical intolerance to bread show no signs of any symptoms in blind testing.

He, himself, though is wary of what sort of bread he eats. "We have several pounds of bacteria in our guts and there have been marked changes in this gut flora in affluent societies over the last 50 years."
Prof Warner says he would always choose the simpler product.
And while producers are not obliged to say what enzymes are added to the bread, Polson says there is no evidence that it is any harder to digest.
"There are some additional additives to give it a bit more shelf life, a bit of extra softness - but all it's doing is augmenting what is happening in the natural process."
So, the Chorleywood process has its critics but its success with consumers is undeniable.
Even in France some stick loaves are now made the Chorleywood way, although not the classic "baguette".
The process is now used in more than 30 countries with Colombia and Ecuador taking it on in the last few years. Britain's white bread market is worth about £1bn a year, and most of that is Chorleywood bread.
It's cheap, filling, soft, long-lasting and, because it can turn low-protein British wheat in to palatable bread, a boon to British farmers.
But while it's considered by researchers at the food technology research institute in Chipping Campden to be a marvel of food engineering - the public does not seem to value it too highly.
Almost a third of the bread bought in Britain - 680,000 tonnes a year - is thrown away.

Chorleywood: The bread that changed Britain

Comments (98)

In today's Magazine

The move was good for British farmers growing low-protein wheat

'Best food value in Britain'

Click to play

The classic white loaf - how it is made and what people think of it

20th Century history of bread

1928: First bread slicing machine, invented by Otto Rohwedder, exhibited at a bakery trade fair in the US
1930: Large UK bakeries take commercial slicers and sliced bread first appears in shops
1933: Around 80% of US bread is pre-sliced and wrapped. The phrase "the best thing since sliced bread" coined
1941: Calcium added to UK flour to prevent rickets
1942: The national loaf - much like today's brown loaf - introduced to combat shortage of white flour
1954: Conditions in bakeries regulated by the Night Baking Act
1956: National loaf abolished
1961: The Chorleywood Bread Process introduced

Source: The Federation of Bakers

However, three-quarters of people who believe they have an allergy or medical intolerance to bread show no signs of any symptoms in blind testing.

Has Wayne Rooney dealt well with hair transplant news?

By Kathryn Westcott BBC News, Magazine

Wayne Rooney before his operation to counteract premature hair loss

Footballer Wayne Rooney tweeted at the weekend that he had undergone hair transplant surgery, joining a growing list of celebrities who have gone public on such procedures. But how should ordinary men break the news to their friends and family?

For many men, losing their hair is an extremely sensitive issue. Whatever efforts they take to counteract the effects can be embarrassing.
Telling people you have had hair transplant surgery can elicit accusations of "manity" - male vanity.
But Rooney has earned some praise for his approach in going public shortly after his operation, with one commentator from the Irish Times saying he had handled the issue with great style.
"I was going bald at 25 - why not. I'm delighted with the result," Rooney posted at the weekend, adding: "It's still a bit bruised and swollen."
His frank approach elicited a supportive message from Manchester United and England team-mate, Rio Ferdinand: "Just don't go down the wearing a alice band route!! You'll be doing headshoulders adverts soon! Hope its gone OK. Good luck lad."
On Monday, Rooney followed up the announcement by posting a picture of his post-op head on his Twitter feed.

James Nesbitt in 2009 and right, in 2011, after his hair transplant surgery

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi took a different approach in 2004. He was subjected to ridicule in the national and international media after wearing a white bandana, leaving commentators and the public playing a guessing game as whether or not he had hair transplant surgery.
He went public months later, saying he felt 25 years younger and that as far as he was concerned cosmetic surgery was a way of showing respect to your loved ones.
Rooney, who has premature hair loss, joins celebrities such as actors John Cleese and James Nesbitt in talking publicly about having hair transplant surgery.
Nesbitt, who spent tens of thousands of pounds on his operation, had been open about his fear of losing his hair. He initially discussed his transplant in a video testimonial for the Dublin clinic that carried it out at the end of 2010.
Virility link
In subsequent interviews, he maintained that it has changed his life and that anyone who says going bald isn't horrible "is lying".
His honesty led one commentator to suggest that he had "played a blinder... a mix of matter-of-fact honesty and bewilderment that people are making so much of it".

“Start Quote

It's good if you can look confident and have a sense of humour - if you show shame of embarrassment it's the worst thing”

End Quote Judi James Social behaviour expert

To many men, hair loss is a sensitive issue. In many people's minds it is associated with loss of virility and vitality - counter-intuitive given that high testosterone is one of the reasons cited by medical experts for hair loss.

Figures for how many hair transplant operations take place in the UK are hard to come by, but Dr Bessam Farjo, medical director of the Institute of Trichologists, estimates that the annual figure is around 10,000, compared with about 5,000 five years ago.
The surgeon runs his own medical centres, where he says he has seen numbers for these procedures steadily increase, and they are now starting to spike.
But hair transplant surgery is an expensive, painful procedure. Inevitably, men can face a hard time once family and friends get wind of it.
"The implication is that it's a vanity thing," says Mike Shallcross, deputy editor of Men's Health magazine. "But men nowadays want to look better and they want more advice on how to do it. There is a big boom area in male grooming and people do it for different reasons."
He thinks Rooney's approach to going public is a good one.
"I think it was admirable that he was so upfront," he says. "It is worse having had something obvious done, but trying to pretend nothing has happened.
"I don't know of any reason why one couldn't drip it into an exchange of e-mails with your friends - after all, if you turned up at the pub with your mates with a full head of hair, it could become an early talking point.

In 2004 Silvio Berlusconi appeared in a bandana, sparking rumours that he had undergone hair surgery

"Probably with colleagues at work, it's best to tell them in advance. It's a bit like having laser eye surgery, it's noticeable, suddenly you won't be wearing glasses anymore."
Shallcross says it's better not to make too big a fuss when announcing the news.
"The bigger the deal you make of it, the more dramatically people will react."
But, as Shallcross points out, hair transplants are not for everyone who is losing their hair.
"Male pattern baldness is common but many men are wearing it well - gone are the days of the Bobby Charlton combover - there are a lot of men who have made hair loss look cool. Actor Jason Statham is one of our most popular cover stars," he says.
But for those who do go down that route, humour can be key when making the announcement. It was this element that stood out with the Rooney announcement - and his wife's follow-up tweet pointing out that the decision had not been made on account of Coleen badgering him.
"Humour is very important in this kind of announcement," says social behaviour expert Judi James. "People take a lead from your own behaviour, it's good if you can look confident and have a sense of humour. If you show shame of embarrassment it's the worst thing.
"You could mention it beforehand. That will avoid the sniggering, and people are more likely to speak straight to your face about what it was like etc. Wayne has done the right thing - announce it and get it over and done with, and perhaps suggest a date when you will be showing it off.
"If you change your look, the reaction are mostly shock or laughter and actually laughter is not a bad response. If handled well, people will be laughing with you rather than at you."

Does Christine Lagarde's sex qualify her to head the IMF?

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde is one of two declared candidates bidding to take over as head of the IMF. The other is a man. Lucy Kellaway of the Financial Times asks whether Ms Lagarde's gender works in her favour - and whether it should?

Ms Lagarde announced her candidacy for the IMF top job

If successful, Ms Lagarde would be the first woman to head the IMF

When Christine Lagarde launched her bid to be head of the IMF she declared that she would bring to the job all her "experience as a lawyer, a minister, a manager and a woman".
The first three strands of Lagarde's experience are formidable. But what did she mean by the fourth?
What is her experience as a woman? And how does it make her a better candidate for the job?
The most obvious thing that differentiates a woman's experience from a man's is that women bear children.
On two occasions, Lagarde has spent the best part of a year with a growing lump in her abdomen, and then endured the tricky business of getting it out.
For most women this is a very big deal, though it's not obvious how such experience sets anyone up for running the IMF.

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The BBC World Service's Business Daily programme features regular letters from contributors around the world

Business Daily

As children grow up, however, a mother can find herself doling out pocket money which gets instantly blown on sweets, leaving nothing to spend on a sibling's birthday present.

She then faces the tricky decision of whether or not to bail the child out, and what conditions to impose on any loan extended.
I can see that such an experience could well be relevant to a future head of the IMF, only the difference being one of degree - rather more countries requiring rather larger sums.
Gung-ho

“Start Quote

Women are popularly supposed to be risk-averse, and therefore to make safer leaders”

End Quote Lucy Kellaway

Financial Times

Beyond that, I am struggling to see how Lagarde's experience as a woman is going to help. What may assist her, however, is the simple fact of her gender.

It would look good to have a woman running the IMF, especially given the female-unfriendly circumstances under which her predecessor crashed out of office.
Beyond such PR benefits, one could argue that it is her female personality traits, rather than her experience, that may count in her favour.
Women are popularly supposed to be risk-averse, and therefore to make safer leaders. To the extent to which it was Dominique Strauss-Kahn's allegedly wild appetite for risk that brought him down, a woman might seem a better bet for now.
But actually there is no evidence showing that senior women are more risk-averse than men. A recent survey done on a large sample of Scandinavian directors shows the women who get to the top aren't remotely risk-averse. In fact they are more gung-ho about taking risks than their male colleagues.
Teamwork There is a further piece of research from the US I came across last week that could be used to help Lagarde if she wants to play the woman card.
It suggests that when it comes to working in a team, the more women that are on it, the better it is going to perform.

Click to play

Christine Lagarde: "As a woman I bring a new dimension"

I take this with a pinch of salt, partly because I can't think of any reason to explain it. And had the study shown the reverse - that women reduced the intelligence of groups - it would have been impossible, in this PC age, to find anyone willing to publish it.
Which makes me think that maybe Lagarde's experience as a woman is something rather special after all.
Such is the public desire to see women succeed, that a powerful woman with talent, connections and ambition, has probably had an easier time of climbing the ladder than her male counterparts, and may - with justification - expect that more success is coming her way.

Nintendo server attacked by hacking group Lulz Security

Gaming console makers have been the target of attacks by hacking group Lulz security

Nintendo has become the latest company to suffer an online security breach due to an attack by hackers, Lulz Security.

The Japanese game company said that a server of one of its affiliates in the US was attacked by the group some weeks ago.
Lulz Security is the same group that attacked the websites of Sony over the past few weeks.
However, the maker of the Wii said that no consumer data or company information was lost.
"There were no third-party victims," company spokesman Ken Toyoda said.
"But it is a fact, there was some kind of possible hacking attack," he added.
'Utmost priority' Over the past few months, there has been a spate of attacks by hackers on the websites of leading companies resulting in the loss of valuable consumer data.
Japanese electronics maker Sony suffered a massive security breach earlier this year when hackers targeted the PlayStation Network and the details of 77 million users were compromised.
However in this case, Nintendo says there was no consumer data stored on the server accessed by the hackers and the company insists it is constantly working to ensure consumer safety.
"The protection of our customer information is our utmost priority," said Tomokazu Nakaura of Nintendo Japan.
"Therefore, we constantly monitor our security," he added.

Michael Jackson insurance firm refuses to pay out

ackson died two years ago

The UK firm that insured Michael Jackson's comeback gigs at London's O2 arena has asked a judge in Los Angeles to nullify the $17.5m (£10.7m) policy.

Insurer Lloyd's of London is suing promoter AEG Live saying it failed to supply details including apparent "prescription drug use and/or addiction".
AEG took out the cancellation and non-appearance policy - with cover of up to $17.5m - two months before Jackson's June 2009 death, court papers suggest.
AEG Live was not available for comment.
Lloyd's said a lawyer for AEG Live submitted a claim, along with Jackson's death certificate, within days of the singer's death.
Shows cancelled It said that, when AEG Live took out the policy - in which the singer was given the alias Mark Jones - it should have given full information about his medical history.
The insurer said a required medical examination was never carried out.
It also claimed it had sought information from the promoter about Jackson's personal doctor, Conrad Murray, since December 2009.
AEG had failed to provide that information, Lloyd's said.
For all these reasons, Lloyd's said it was not obliged to pay for the cost of cancelling the shows - one of the biggest debts faced by the singer's estate following his death.
Dr Murray, who had been treating Jackson for insomnia, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of involuntary manslaughter over the singer's death.
Prosecutors say he gave Jackson a lethal dose of a powerful anaesthetic and then failed to provide proper care.
Lawyers for Dr Murray, who will appear in court later this year, have suggested in recent months that the singer gave himself the dose of anaesthetic.

X Factor confirms Cheryl Cole is not a judge in US show

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Page last updated at 16:53 GMT, Monday, 6 June 2011 17:53 UK

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American TV bosses have confirmed Cheryl Cole will no longer be a judge on the US version of the X Factor.

It's the first time Fox, Freemantle North America and Syco TV have confirmed the Girls Aloud star is no longer part of the format.
In a statement, bosses confirmed that former Pussycat Dolls' singer Nicole Scherzinger will be her replacement.
Former T4 presenter Steve Jones will host the show by himself as Nicole Scherzinger becomes a judge.
The statement said: "Nicole will join Simon Cowell, L.A. Reid and Paula Abdul on their search across America to find the next global superstar or group to win the life-changing five million dollar recording deal.
"Nicole has previously joined Simon Cowell as a guest judge on The X Factor for the UK version of the show in 2010.
"Steve Jones will act as sole host of The X Factor."

Google to abandon older browsers

Microsoft has run an extended campaign to get people to abandon IE6 - one of its older browsers.

Google is phasing out support for older browsers from 1 August.

Those using IE7, Safari 3, Firefox 3.5 and their predecessors to view Gmail, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs and Sites will then lose some functions.
Eventually, it warned, these web services will stop working for those sticking with older browsers.
The move is part of a trend to stop the use of ageing browsers which can be insecure and not sophisticated enough to handle the latest web technologies.
Code malfunction Statistics on browser versions gathered by StatCounter suggest about 17% need to change in the light of Google's decision.
Google made its announcement in a blogpost saying its engineers were keen to make use of the latest capabilities in browsers, and that required support for HTML5 technology.
As a result, from 1 August, Google will only support what it calls "modern browsers". By this it means the latest versions and major prior releases of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari.
As new versions of these are released, Google will get its web services working with that and then drop support for the third-oldest version.
Support in this sense means that Google will only do compatibility testing with more up-to-date browsers. It will not carry out tests with older programmes and can make no guarantees that web services will work with them.
Concluding the blogpost, Venkat Panchapakesan, vice president of engineering at Google, wrote: "These new browsers are more than just a modern convenience, they are a necessity for what the future holds."
In mid-May, Mozilla, which oversees development of Firefox, kicked off a plan to get the 12 million or so people using version 3.5 of its browser to update.
It said it was "frustrated" with efforts to get people to upgrade and had taken a series of steps to force change.
It used pop-up screens, adverts, re-directs and updates to steer people towards more recent versions of Firefox.
Figures gathered by Mozilla suggest the campaign has had some success as the number of users on Firefox 3.5 has now dropped to about one million.
Microsoft's campaign to stop people using Internet Explorer 6 is one of the longest running upgrade efforts.
The software giant has used its automatic update system to get newer versions of its browser out to many users.
However, many companies prefer not to use this system and that has meant IE6 clinging on in some firms and nations.
Globally about 11% of browsers are IE6, suggest figures compiled by Microsoft, and there is a wide variation around the world.
About 34% of Chinese net users are on IE6, as are 22.3% of South Koreans and 11.6% of Vietnamese people.

Arizona Wallow Fire 'uncontained' and growing

Wildfires have spread across hundreds of square miles of forest

An Arizona wildfire continued to grow on Monday morning, as firefighters contending with strong, dry winds remain unable to contain the blaze.

The Wallow fire, the third-largest in the state's history, has already consumed 301 sq miles (780 sq km).
More than 2,300 firefighters from across the country have joined the fight, with residents evacuating towns in the fire's path.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has described the fire as "horrific".
The fire, which started on 29 May, is threatening mountain communities in the east of the state.
Smoke from the burning pine forests can be seen in the neighbouring states of New Mexico and Colorado.
Most residents of the resort town of Greer, in the White Mountains, left on Saturday, packing their belongings in to vehicles as the Wallow Fire moved closer.
The few who remain in the town, just seven miles (11km) from the fire's front line, are under a pre-evacuation order, ready to leave at short notice.

Residents in the towns of Alpine and Nutrioso have also been ordered to evacuate.
Several towns near the New Mexico border - including Escudilla Mountain Estates, Bonita and Dog Patch - were evacuated on Sunday.
Fire crews were lighting lines of smaller controlled fires in an effort to contain the advance of the wind-driven main blaze.
Some 2,315 firefighters from several states, including New York, are on the scene fighting the blaze, according to local media, at a total cost of $3m (£1.83m).
A blaze in 2002 burnt through 732 sq miles in the centre of the state and another in 2005 that scorched 387 sq miles near Phoenix.

Prada seeks to raise $2.6bn in Hong Kong share offering

A man walks past a Prada store in Hong Kong

Prada was founded in 1913

Fashion house Prada is seeking to raise up to $2.6bn (£1.6bn) via a flotation on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The privately owned company wants to sell 423.3 million shares to investors in a range of 36.50 to 48 Hong Kong dollars, the BBC has learned.
Prada would be the first Italian company to list in Hong Kong, as it seeks to tap China's growing appetite for luxury goods.
The company was founded in 1913 and also owns Miu Miu and Church's Shoes.
According to documents filed to the Hong Kong stock exchange, Prada expects to open 70 more stores in Asia by 2014, of which 30 will be in China.
"We believe further growth is possible due to the continuing growth of the Chinese economy," the company said.
Prada, said it also hopes to expand in the Middle East, Russia and Brazil.
The company is run by the husband and wife team Patrizio Bertelli and Miuccia Prada, who is the founder's granddaughter.
Brands flock to Hong Kong
Prada is not the only big-name brand looking to list in Hong Kong.
French skincare group L'Occitane listed there last year, and Samsonite, the world's biggest luggage firm, is seeking to raise up to $1.5bn in an initial public offering (IPO) this month.
Luxury goods makers Coach and Burberry have also expressed interest in listing shares in Hong Kong.

Click to play

Prada set to list on Hong Kong stock exchange

They hope that a Hong Kong listing will raise their profile among China's increasingly wealthy consumers, as well as being an effective way to raise funds for expansion.
Over the next decade, China is expected to become the world's largest market for luxury goods, worth 74bn euros ($107bn), according to a recent report by Asia-focused research firm CLSA.
Luxury handbags, clothing, watches and jewellery are the most favoured ways for Chinese to display their wealth, the report adds.
IPO boom
Hong Kong has been the world's biggest IPO market for the past two years, eclipsing London and New York.
However, not all offerings have been successful.
This week Australian mining company Resourcehouse dropped its Hong Kong IPO plans because of a poor response from investors.
The company had planned to raise as much as $3.6bn in order to develop its Queensland coal mine.
Prada has also had a rocky road to the market.
This is the fifth time the company - which is still 95% owned by the Prada family - has tried to pull off a stock market listing.
One previous attempt faltered during the downturn following the 11 September terrorist attacks in the US in 2001. Prada revived its plans in 2007, but they were put on hold by the market turmoil triggered by the credit crunch.
Prada's management team is holding a fashion show and investor presentation in Hong Kong as they begin marketing the IPO to investors worldwide.
The price of the shares will be set on 17 June, ahead of the first day's trading on 24 June.
The company stock code will be "1913" - the year the company was founded.

Australia breakthrough on recovering old fingerprints

By Phil Mercer BBC News, Sydney

Nanotechnology picks up traces of amino acids missed by previous techniques

Australian researchers have developed a new way of recovering usable fingerprints from old evidence.

The scientists, at the University of Technology in Sydney, believe it is a world first, that could help police reopen unsolved cases.
They used nanotechnology to detect dry and weak fingerprints, which are not revealed by traditional techniques.
Nanotechnology reveals much sharper detail of amino acid traces from old fingerprints than existing methods.
Their aim is to detect fingerprints of any age on any surface.
Specimens that previously went unseen are now being revealed using new chemical treatments that target amino acids.
These are molecules commonly found in sweat and are therefore present in most fingerprints.
While the targeting of amino acids in this area has been used for decades, the researchers in Sydney are employing nanotechnology to give degraded samples sharper detail.
Great goal "If we get something that does work really well and is able to enhance prints on old evidence there is always that potential to use it for cold cases and things like that and for older evidence that may have been laying around for quite a while," says Dr Xanthe Spindler.
"So I think this is something that is really going to push the boundaries, and will hopefully get more fingerprints, better fingerprints and hopefully improve case-solving success rates."
The research is continuing and Dr Spindler says it is an important step forward in efforts to conquer one of the great goals of forensic science - to recover fingerprints from human skin.
The project is a collaboration between academics in Sydney and Canberra, the Australian Federal Police and Northern Illinois University in the United States.

Drug firms cut vaccine prices to the developing world

Health worker in West Africa takes a dose of a vaccine

The vaccines will be sold at a price that covers the drugmakers' costs

Several major drugs companies have announced big cuts to the amounts they charge for their vaccines in the developing world.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Merck, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi-Aventis have agreed to cut prices through the international vaccine alliance Gavi.
GSK said it would cut the price of its vaccine for rotavirus by 67% to $2.50 (£1.50) a dose in poor countries.
Rotavirus-related diarrhoea kills more than 500,000 children a year.
The vaccine will be subsidised by higher prices being charged in richer countries.
The rotavirus vaccine, for example, would cost about $50 in the US.
'Helped out'

Doctor's reaction

Dr Freddie Coker is a paediatrician at the main referral centre in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown.
"I'm very excited. As a doctor, I usually spend sleepless nights trying to see how much I can contribute to reducing the infant mortality rate among under-fives in my country. I'm quite happy.
"About 40% of cases we see are due to diarrhoea diseases. The mortality rate can be as high as 50%.
"The earlier a child is commenced on treatment, the better the outcome."

Listen to Dr Coker on BBC World Service

"What we need is a return to invest in the next generation of new vaccines and drugs and that has to come from the profits of the medicines or the vaccines," Andrew Witty, chief executive of GSK told the BBC.

"But it's obvious that if you're in Kenya or a slum in Malawi or somewhere like that there is no capacity for those people to contribute to it, so they have to be helped out by the contribution from the middle and the richer (countries)."
Gavi is a partnership representing public and private sector organisations that helps to fund mass vaccination programmes in developing countries.
It is committed to funding the introduction of rotavirus vaccinations in 40% of the poorest countries by 2015, but it faced a $3.7bn funding shortfall and so has been appealing for price cuts and donations.
It will be holding a pledging conference in London on 13 June.
Anti-poverty campaigners welcomed the move but also called on world leaders to act.
"The pricing commitments announced today help drive momentum, but Gavi's ambition to save four million lives in the next five years is only achievable if the international donor community steps up to the plate on 13 June," said Jamie Drummond, executive director of campaign group ONE.
Malaria vaccine

Andrew Witty from GlaxoSmithKline explains their drugs pricing system

Merck has said it will provide its own rotavirus vaccine for $5 a dose, coming down to $3.50 once more than 30 million doses have been sold.
The price Gavi pays for pentavalent vaccines, which protect against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type B will be cut by two Indian firms, Serum Institute and Panacea Biotec.
GSK also said it was very close to developing the world's first malaria vaccine, which is unusual because there is no market for it in the West.
That means there is no opportunity for patients in richer countries to subsidise those in poorer countries.
As a result, GSK said that if the vaccine comes to market it would be sold at a price that provides a small return of 5%, which would be used to fund the next generation of malaria treatments.
Save the Children called on other companies to replicate the "landmark move" which it said could prevent hundreds of thousands of "needless deaths".
"It's important that Gavi now uses this to spur other vaccine producers to reduce prices and work to foster greater competition amongst producers to drive prices down even further and help even more children," said chief executive Justin Forsyth.

Singapore Air in code share deal with Virgin Australia

Singapore Airlines A380 at Changi airport (file picture)

Singapore Airlines recently announced a new budget subsidiary

Aerospace and Defence

Singapore Airlines and Virgin Australia have entered a partnership which allows them to sell tickets and seats on each other's international and domestic flights.

The so called code-sharing agreement will mean passengers may purchase a seat with Virgin but the flight will be operated by Singapore Air.
The deal is subject to regulatory approval.
Asia is the world's largest and fastest growing market for air travel.
The agreement brings Singapore Airlines' international network together with Virgin's routes within Australia and the Pacific.
"It will enhance the attractiveness of Australia as a travel destination while also opening up new horizons for travellers from Australia," said Singapore Airlines head Goh Choon Phong in a statement.
Singapore Airlines passengers will be able to access a further 30 destinations.
While Virgin customers will be able to fly to 70 more places.
"Singapore Airlines' extensive network throughout Asia will be particularly attractive to our international business and leisure travellers," said Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti in a statement.
Virgin already has alliances with Delta Airlines, Etihad and Air New Zealand.
Virgin, Australia's second largest airline, said the agreement with Singapore Air will also allow reciprocal frequent flyer programme benefits and lounge access.
The alliance goes into effect on 1 August.

Indonesia: Search for missing in fatal ferry sinking

Rescue workers are looking for more than a dozen people still missing after an overcrowded ferry sank off the Borneo coast.

Indonesian officials said at least 18 people had drowned in the incident off South Kalimantan.
Officials told reporters that the wooden ship was over-crowded, carrying four crew and more than 100 passengers.
Shipping is a main form of transport across the archipelago and accidents are not uncommon.
The boat had departed from Tanjung Dewa and was heading towards Serongga, officials said.
"So far we have found 18 bodies. As many as 74 people have been rescued safely," said the head of Search and Rescue Office of the province, Rusli Ansyah.
The cause of the accident is unknown. Offcials said there was strong waves and wind when the boat sank late on Monday.
Indonesia comprises of more than 17,000 islands.
Overcrowding, high seas and poor safety standards have caused many fatal accidents.

Tuesday, 7 June 2011

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