Robert Evans

Scientists have found signs of the Higgs boson, an elementary sub-atomic particle thought to have played a vital role in the creation of the universe.

The mysterious "creation" particle believed to have turned flying debris into stars and planets at the dawn of the universe has evaded capture.

In September 1932, already a world-famous artist, Pablo Picasso drove from Paris to Zurich for the opening of a mega-exhibition.

The UN called on richer governments on Monday to provide ,1-billion in 2010 to fund humanitarian assistance for 48-million people in 25 countries.

The ''Big Bang'' experiment at Cern scored a world record on Monday by accelerating beams to the highest energy ever achieved in a particle collider.

cPolitical prisoners and criminal detainees are systemically tortured in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, a United Nations investigator said on Wednesday.

Scientists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern) started up a huge particle-smashing machine on Wednesday.

The airline industry body IATA slashed its forecast for industry profits in 2008 on Wednesday, warning that the spiralling cost of fuel and the impact of the credit crunch would reverse expected growth. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reduced its forecast for 2008 industry profits by one third to -billion.

Children in Gaza and Zimbabwe desperately need help to ensure they have food, clean water and schooling, a senior United Nations official said on Monday. Dan Toole, director of emergency programmes for Unicef, said a shortage of donor cash was having a dramatic effect in the territories.

South African Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu called on Wednesday on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to ensure that violations of human rights and humanitarian law in their region were punished. In a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, he also called for an international investigation of the Israeli shelling of the town of Beit Hanoun in Gaza last November.

United Nations human rights investigators on Wednesday called off a visit to Darfur after Sudanese officials demanded the removal of the UN's former top rights official from the group. The six-member team, set up last December by the UN Human Rights Council, said it would pursue its work without entering the country.

Use of the Internet is booming all around the world, bucking the global economic downturn and the crisis in the information technology industry, according to United Nations figures issued on Monday.