A chemical contained in soya damages human sperm while on their journey through the fallopian tubes to fertilise an egg and could thus affect a woman’s ability to conceive, a British academic has found. The chemical genistein causes sperm to lose their acrosomes, the caps that allow them to penetrate the egg.
The four suicide bombers who killed 52 people in London on July 7 left a car packed with 16 bombs, newspapers said on Thursday, with one claiming that the devices were made by the same person who armed a second wave of attackers two weeks later.
An artist appealed on Tuesday for the return of an art work that consisted of a bottle of water on a plinth, saying he fears it was stolen and then drunk. United States artist Wayne Hill had devised the art work, a two-litre clear plastic bottle filled with melted ice from the Antarctic, to highlight the dangers of global warming.
Police on Wednesday arrested four men in the central English city of Birmingham under anti-terrorist laws in connection with the investigation into last week’s attempted bombings in London.
Manchester United fans opposed to Malcolm Glazer’s takeover have promised to continue protesting a British telecom company after it refused to pull out of its sponsorship deal with the club. Disgruntled fans picketed Vodafone’s annual general meeting in London on Tuesday.
David Beckham’s marketability may be fading. The England captain and Real Madrid star — soccer’s most recognisable player — has been dropped as the advertising face of cellphone giant Vodafone, which announced on Tuesday that it has ended its three-year deal with the 30-year-old Beckham.
The international aid agency Oxfam urged the United Nations on Wednesday to create a -billion emergency fund at a summit in September to prevent future famines such as one that is devastating Niger. The famine, which is threatening 3,6-million people in the West African nation was predicted more than six months ago, said the organisation.
Shane Warne insisted on Tuesday that England had paid the price for getting caught up in the hype surrounding the Ashes after Australia’s crushing 239-run first Test win at Lord’s. ”I think what certain players said in the build-up was important. It was surprising to hear some of them come out with such strong opinions,” Warne wrote in his column in The Times.
The secret of British Prime Minister Tony Blair famous all-year healthy glow has been revealed — his spends almost twice as much on make-up as the average British woman. Figures released by Downing Street show that Blair spent more than £1 800 (R20 900) on make-up and make-up artists over the past six years.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair made an impassioned plea on Tuesday for the world to unite against terrorism and refuse to "give one inch" to their demands. Blair also said he supports giving police expanded powers of detention under proposed changes to anti-terrorist laws in the wake of the London bombings.
British police were hopeful on Tuesday that the trail of evidence uncovered so far would lead them closer to the fugitive London bombers, after naming two of the wanted men. Detectives were continuing a thorough search of a flat north of the city linked to the duo on the run.
The British press on Monday questioned the police handling of investigations into the July bomb attacks on the London transport system in the wake of the fatal shooting of an innocent Brazilian man. Lawmakers also joined the debate about the police shoot-to-kill policy after 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead on Friday by police who mistook him for a possible suicide bomber.
A new business newspaper, the London Business Daily, will be launched in London later this year and be distributed free to commuters traveling on the city’s public transport. The daily targets a market dominated by The Financial Times, the respected salmon-coloured newspaper that sells in Britain and abroad.
Mark McGowan went into the tiny backroom kitchen of a south London gallery three weeks ago and flipped on the cold water. He didn’t turn it off, and doesn’t plan to for an entire year. The Running Tap, as it’s called, is McGowan’s effort to protest against wasted water in London by blatantly letting it go down the drain.
Nitrous oxide — laughing gas — is the best for creating the right-sized bubbles in chocolate, British scientists working with a recipe from Nestlé have discovered. That melt-in-the-mouth sensation that the Swiss-based chocolate maker strives to achieve in its Aero brand is best achieved with this ”dentists’ gas”, according to researchers working at Reading University.
Australia beat England by 239 runs to win the first Test at Lord’s on Sunday with more than a day to spare. England, chasing what would have been a Test world record fourth innings victory total of 420, were bowled out for 180 after tea on the fourth day.
Championship leader Valentino Rossi of Italy won Sunday’s rain-soaked British MotoGP, with Kenny Roberts of the United States taking second place and Brazil’s Alex Barros third. American Colin Edwards was fourth. Six-time champion Rossi took the lead near the end of the 29-lap race, passing Barros with about a half-dozen laps remaining.
Yelena Isinbayeva cleared five metres to set her latest world record in the women’s pole vault on Friday at the Crystal Palace Grand Prix. Ten minutes earlier, the 23-year-old Russian jumped 4,96m on her second attempt, surpassing the world mark of 4,95m she set last Saturday in Madrid, Spain.
The police in London said on Saturday they’d arrested a second man in London in connection with this week’s failed bomb attacks. Scotland Yard said the man was arrested in Stockwell, the south London neighbourhood where another suspect was detained on Friday and another man was shot dead by the police in a subway station.
Filmmaker Roman Polanski on Friday won his libel suit against the publisher of Vanity Fair magazine over an article that accused him of propositioning a woman while on the way to the funeral of his murdered wife. Polanski was awarded £50 000 (R577 000) in damages.
British Muslims said they fear police are operating under a ”shoot to kill” policy after a man was gunned down at an underground train station on Friday following a new wave of bomb attacks. Police have confirmed that officers pursued and shot a man who was pronounced dead at the scene.
London police released on Friday closed-circuit television images of four men they are "urgently" seeking in connection with the attempted suicide bombings the day before on London’s public transport system. The grainy images showed casually dressed men — one wearing a dark-blue "New York" sweatshirt.
Police confirmed on Friday that a man was shot by armed officers at an underground station in south London, amid reports that he was a would-be suicide bomber. Sky News television reported that passengers had been evacuated from trains at the station.
Eleven years ago Shane Warne had the record book in his sights. The leg-
spinner had taken only 141 Test wickets when he said he intended to beat Kapil Dev’s record of 434. One commentator wrote: ”Experts are projecting an eventual tally of 500 wickets, even 600, which is surely fanciful.”
The new attacks in London bore similarities to the July 7 blasts in that they were also implemented by suicide bombers, but in the fresh attacks, the terrorists ran away when the explosives failed to ignite, reported local media on Friday.
The four bombings or attempted bombings that rocked London’s transport network on Thursday were intended to kill and bore similarities to the deadly blasts in the city two weeks ago, the city’s police chief said. ”I think the important point is that the intention of the terrorists has not been fulfilled,” he said.
Shock and bewilderment were etched on the faces of Londoners on Thursday as blasts struck the British capital’s transit system for the second time in as many weeks. British Prime Minister Tony Blair told a press conference the blasts were ”serious” and intended to scare people.
Explosions struck London’s transport system on Thursday, shutting down three underground train stations and blowing out the windows of a double-decker bus, authorities said, two weeks after four deadly suicide bombings. Metropolitan police Commissioner Ian Blair said there were four attempted explosions.
Three London subway stations were evacuated on Thursday following a number of unspecified ”incidents”, police said, as witnesses reported panic and screaming in the underground system. Scotland Yard said emergency services responded to an ”incident” on a bus in east London.
E-mail authentication standards aimed at reducing e-mail spam have been dogged by rivalry between vendors. But fresh hope surrounds an encryption technique that is an open technology and has considerable support. Yahoo and Cisco Systems are the lead vendors behind a new e-mail authentication specification that will be considered as a possible industry standard by the Internet Engineering Task Force.
A decade ago, when the internet bandwagon started to roll, the sense of fear from inside the literary establishment was palpable. With each new technological development, sinister soothsayers would trot out the latest in a series of dark predictions. Ebooks, we were told, would herald the death of paper-based novels.
Rio Ferdinand’s agent insists the England star will be staying at Manchester United. Ferdinand and United are still locked in talks over a new contract, which has led to Red Devils fans booing the central defender during pre-season matches. United manager Alex Ferguson and chief executive David Gill have both backed Ferdinand.