INTERNET NEWS

Cheetah's speed secrets are revealed

2012-09-09T12:12:00.001-07:00

A sprinting cheetah is like "a rear-wheel-drive car," say scientists.

Japanese researchers mapped the muscles fibres of the big cat known to accelerate to record-breaking speeds.
By comparing the cheetah's muscles with those of a domestic cat and dog, the team identified the special propulsion power of its hindlimb muscles.
The study is the first to investigate muscle fibre distribution across the whole of the cheetah's body,
The findings are published in the journal Mammalian Biology and examine how the muscle fibres of domestic cats and dogs compare with those of the world's fastest land mammal.

"The study of muscles is indispensable to understand the cheetah's run," said Dr Naomi Wada, the study's co-author and Professor in System Physiology at Yamaguchi University in Japan.

Different types of muscle fibre are suited to different activities, explained Dr Wada.
In all the animals studied, so-called Type I fibres produced a small force output but were resistant to fatigue, making them best suited to maintaining posture and slow walking.
Type IIa fibre performance was best suited to fast walking and trotting whereas Type IIx or "fast" fibres created a high force output but had low endurance and were key to fast running or galloping.
By mapping the distribution of fibres across the muscles of a cheetah's body, scientists were able to gain insights into the animal's impressive sprint technique.

A sprinting cheetah spends more than half its time in the air
"The forelimb muscles in the cheetah included [the] most Type I muscle fibres of all three animals... while the muscle of hind limb muscles have many Type IIx fibres."
"The functional difference between forelimb and hindlimb is the most remarkable in the cheetah," said Dr Wada.
The team's results suggested that the power comes from the cheetah's hind legs, in the same way as a rear wheel-drive car, according to Dr Wada.
She drew a further automative parallel when describing how the cheetah handles at high speed.
The digits of the cheetah's hindlimbs contained no fast fibres, but the digits on the front legs contained many of them.
Dr Wada explained that this is because the cheetah controls its balance by using its forefeet to turn and slow down.
However, most rear-wheel drive cars cannot mimic the enviable acceleration of the cheetah: zero to 60mph in under three seconds.
Previous studies have indentified the cat's seven metre stride-length as key to this ability. With long, flexible limbs, a sprinting cheetah spends more than half its time airborne.
In order to maximise this effect, it arches and contracts its spine, and Dr Wada and colleagues found muscle fibres that supported this technique.
The cat had a high percentage of fast fibres running along its back and middle, suggesting that it could produce a quick, strong extension of the backbone.

Fatty Food Might Cause Brain Damage, Suggests Research

2012-09-07T23:25:00.000-07:00

Brain damage caused by fatty food might be one reason why people who habitually over-eat find it so hard to lose weight, scientists have said.

New research suggests that saturated fat can destroy neurons in a part of the brain that controls energy balance and appetite.

Researchers found changes to vital genes and proteins in the brains of mice fed a high fat diet.

The effects in the hypothalamus - the brain's energy centre - indicated the kind of damage normally caused by inflammation and blood clot strokes.

Lead scientist Lynda Williams, from the University of Aberdeen Rowett Institute, said: "These changes may underlie the breakdown of energy centres in the brain and may explain why its so difficult for obese people to maintain weight loss from dieting.

"Our results indicate that a high fat diet can damage the areas of the brain that control energy balance and perpetuate the development of obesity.

"High fat and high sugar foods are energy dense foods which are highly palatable and they are very easy to over-eat. Our findings may also explain why some overweight people find it difficult to diet and why weight loss after dieting is so difficult to maintain.

"We now plan to carry out further studies that will look at whether these effects are reversible."

She pointed out that brain scan studies in the US had shown signs of hypothalamus damage in obese individuals, suggesting that the effects seen in mice may also occur in humans.

Food Addiction Should Be Treated As Medical Condition, Say Experts

The hypothalamus is a small area at the base of the brain that contains neurons which govern energy expenditure and appetite.

"This control breaks down in obesity - the system appears not to work - and we don't really know why this happens," said Dr Williams, speaking at the British Science Festival at the University of Aberdeen.

"In our study we found that genes and proteins change in response to a high fat diet and that these changes are normally associated with damage to the brain, indicating that damage had occurred in the hypothalamus in mice that ate a diet high in saturated fat."

The changes happened quickly, she said. It took three days for proteins to be affected and a week for visible signs of disruption to genes to appear.

Dr Williams acknowledged the effects might be exaggerated in mice whose diet was drastically altered so they obtained 60% of their energy from saturated fat.

The results did not mean people having the occasional unhealthy treat risked damaging their brains, she said.

"The key is to avoid excessive weight gain and to eat sensibly in the first place," she added. "We all deserve a treat now and then."

Another study presented at the meeting showed how the way snacks are presented in cafes can alter people's eating habits.

Pictures of healthy, less healthy, and unhealthy items were arranged in a line beneath the number of calories each contained.

The healthiest foods, such as fruit and cereal bars, were on the left and the unhealthiest, such as chocolate and cake, on the right. A message read: "If you want to consume fewer calories today then choose a snack from the left."

Tested in two coffee shops, the sign led people to reduce the energy value of snacks they bought by about 66 calories on average.

Psychologist Dr Julia Allan, from the University of Aberdeen, said: "We're very excited by this. Research from the US has shown that if you consistently reduce calorie intake by about 100 calories that can lead to weight loss."

LG releases 'world's biggest' ultra-definition TV

2012-09-06T18:18:00.001-07:00

Analysts say 4K technology is likely to encourage consumers to buy larger screens

What is described as the world's biggest ultra-definition (UD) TV has been released by LG Electronics.

It sports an 84in (213cm) screen, smaller than a 90in model made by Sharp, but LG boasts support for 4K, a more advanced picture format.

LG's screen offers 8 million pixels per frame, four times the resolution of 1080p high-definition displays.

The firm sees this technology as a key marketing tool to help challenge market leader Samsung.

Toshiba already offers a smaller 55in 4K screen, and Panasonic a 20in model. Sony and Samsung are also developing their own devices.

However, LG's 25 million-won ($22,010; £13,940) price tag is likely to dissuade many from investing in its technology at present.

"The 4K display market is still in its infancy but it was important for LG to claim a stake in this space," said the chief executive of LG Electronics Home Entertainment, Havis Kwon.

The South Korean company is the second-largest seller of flatscreen television screens, and is known to compete with its domestic rival, Samsung, for bragging rights.

Earlier this year it sought to upstage its rival by showing off the world's largest OLED (organic light-emitting diode) at the Consumer Electronics Show trade show in Las Vegas. But when Samsung heard about the news it shipped an identically sized model to the event.

'Cinema quality'

One analyst said that sales of the latest release were likely to be limited, but it provided an indication of where the industry was pointed.

"4K is a technology that is an evolutionary step that - maybe a long way down the line - will be the successor to today's HD televisions," said Daniel Simmons from IHS Screen Digest.

"It's a step up in image quality, offering the opportunity to have cinema-quality resolution in the home and is a noticeable improvement.

Sharp offers a larger television, but uses the lower-resolution high-definition format

"But it is worth recognising that many people only upgraded their televisions from CRT [cathode ray tube] models in order to have a larger flatscreen model - the high-definition feature was not the primary motivator.

"4K allows people to have even bigger screens in their homes and it may be the screen size, rather than the resolution itself, that makes it attractive."

LG's 84in model has initially been released in South Korea ahead of its launch elsewhere in the world in September. It will also show off the device at the IFA tech trade show in Berlin at the end of August.

Nokia unveils two Windows Phone 8 handsets

2012-09-05T10:59:00.000-07:00

The Windows Phone 8 operating system shares much of its code with its desktop equivalent

Nokia has unveiled its first handsets powered by Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 operating system.

The flagship device - the Lumia 920 - features wireless charging and a "PureView" camera which the mobile firm said offered better video and still images than rival smartphones.
Nokia's loss deepened to 1.41bn euros (£1.1bn) in its last earnings quarter after it lost market share.
Its New York press conference comes in the midst of a number of launches.
Samsung has already shown off a Windows Phone 8 device, and LG and Sony have also recently revealed their new top-of-the-range Android mobiles.
Apple, Motorola and HTC all have events planned over the next three weeks creating extra competition for Nokia as it heads into the busy winter holidays shopping period.
Investors cast doubt over the Finnish firm's chances sending its shares nearly 14% lower.
New features The Lumia 920 features a Snapdragon S4 processor, a 4.5in (11.4cm) curved screen, and can be used while wearing gloves.

It also features several Nokia-only functions designed to make it stand out from other Windows Phone 8 devices.

The Finnish firm claimed that "floating lens technology" meant the handset could capture up to 10 times the amount of light than other handsets.
It said the advantages were brighter, clearer indoor images that would be less prone to blur caused by unsteady hands than some SLR (single lens reflex) cameras on the market which feature bigger and more expensive lenses.
However, some users may be disappointed it features an 8.7-megapixel sensor, many times below the 41MP resolution sensor on an earlier PureView device.
The firm also updated its mapping technology to feature "City Lens" - an augmented reality app that overlays information about nearby restaurants and other points of interest over live footage of the surrounding area captured by the device's camera.
But the headline feature for many will be the fact that the mobile can be recharged without having to plug it in.
Nokia has fitted the handset with technology allowing it to receive power by magnetic induction from suitable bases. It conforms to the emerging Qi industry standard, which should make the Lumia handset compatible with bases designed for other devices.
In addition to selling its own recharging station, Nokia said the US's Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf chain and Virgin Atlantic's Heathrow airport club lounge would fit equipment allowing visitors to power up the Lumia handsets, offering it fresh opportunities to promote the feature.

Nokia suggested that the Lumia 920 was the best device on the market for smartphone photography

A cheaper Lumia 820 was also detailed.
It shares the same operating system and NFC (near field communication) technology as the 920, but has a smaller screen, lower quality camera and requires the purchase of an optional exterior shell to add wireless charging.
Challenges ahead Tony Cripps, principal analyst at tech consultancy Ovum, was positive about the device's chances despite muted sales for Nokia's Windows Phone 7 predecessors.
"The company's focus on improving the imaging capabilities of its smartphones is a reasonable strategy in an age when meaningful differentiation between different makes of smartphone can be hard to identify," he said.
"There could be also a real opportunity here for Nokia and Microsoft to exploit any shortage of Samsung's Android-powered smartphones in the market following the US court ruling against the Korean giant in its patent dispute with Apple, although anything too blatant on that front would seem like a low blow."
But Francisco Jeronimo, research manager at IDC, warned that Nokia would not have the Windows Phone 8 market to itself.
"If Samsung is serious about Windows Phone 8, it will significantly increase its marketing budgets to sell higher volumes than Nokia in the coming quarters," he said.
"It is therefore important for Nokia to continue leading the Windows Phone volumes.
"For that it needs a global launch and not one in 'selected markets' only. When Nokia WP8 devices come out, Nokia will have to execute its best operational and sales skills ever."

McDonald's To Open First Vegetarian Branch In Amritsar, India

2012-09-04T13:43:00.001-07:00

Should you fancy a Big Mac in Amritsar, it will probably be best to avoid McDonald's, as the chain is to open its first meat-free branch in the Indian city.

Scrubbed from the menu will be all burgers, wraps etc. containing meat, in order to adapt to local diets. The vast proportion of Indians are either Hindu or Muslim, and the best deal for both is to take meat off the menu.

Hindus would presumably not fancy a bun filled with ground-up cow, an animal they believe to be sacred, while Muslims steer clear of pork.

The branch will also be close to the Golden Temple in the city, where it is forbidden to eat meat.

McDonald's has a relatively low number of branches in the country, and hopes this move will boost its marketability in India

As such, the first meat-free branch of the restaurant will be opened in the holy city.

A spokesman for McDonald's in northern India, Rajesh Kumar Maini, told the AFP news agency: "There is a big opportunity for vegetarian restaurants as many Indians are vegetarian.

"At the moment, India is still a very small market - we just have 271 restaurants in India, and across the world, we have nearly 33,000."

McDonald's plans to instead feature more salads on the menu and more inventions such as the McAloo Tikki burger, a potato-based burger which, according to the BBC, accounts for 25% of McDonald's sales in the country.

Michael Jackson 'despondent' before comeback concerts

2012-09-03T12:18:00.001-07:00

Jackson arrived for the London press conference in March 2009 90 minutes later than expected

Internal emails sent by the promoters of Michael Jackson's planned 2009 comeback concerts saw them voice concerns over his stability and health.

In one email, sent the day the singer appeared in London to announce his This Is It shows, he was described as "an emotionally paralysed mess".

"[Jackson] is locked in his room drunk and despondent," AEG's Randy Phillips told company president Tim Leiweke.

The message was in 250 pages of emails obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Phillips told his boss he would try to "sober him [Jackson] up" ahead of a press conference at the 02 arena on 5 March, 2009.

Jackson eventually made a five-minute appearance that day in front of hundreds of screaming fans, 90 minutes later than scheduled.

Lawyers for AEG said most of the correspondence was produced as discovery in ongoing litigation and did not give a complete picture of events.

'No response'

According to the Los Angeles Times, the emails are likely to feature in two legal actions set to come to trial next year.

Lloyd's of London, the shows' insurers, are seeking to nullify a $17.5 million (£11m) policy, claiming AEG made false claims about Jackson's health and readiness to perform.

In a separate action, Jackson's heirs have accused the Anschutz Entertainment Group of pressuring the singer to carry on with the comeback despite indications he was too weak.

Numerous emails show Lloyd's of London unsuccessfully seeking access to five years of Jackson's medical records.

A Lloyd's underwriter wrote that repeated requests for written records were "always" met "with no response".

Michael Jackson died on 25 June 2009 from an overdose of the powerful anaesthetic propofol.

Last November his personal physician, Conrad Murray, was convicted of his involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to four years in jail.

House prices in 'surprising' jump, Nationwide says

2012-09-02T12:12:00.000-07:00

Mortgage rationing by lenders remains in full effect

House prices jumped a "surprising" 1.3% in August, the Nationwide building society has said.

It was the biggest monthly rise since January 2010 and left the average UK house price at £164,729.
It means prices are only 0.7% lower than a year ago, despite the recession and continued mortgage rationing.
However, the society's chief economist, Robert Gardner, warned that "we should never read too much into one month's data".
"Nevertheless, the fact that the annual pace of house price decline moderated to minus 0.7% in August from minus 2.6% the previous month provides evidence that conditions remain fairly stable.
"This may be explained by the surprising resilience evident in the UK labour market, with further increases in employment in recent months, even though the UK economy has remained in recession," he added.
Russell Quirk, of estate agents eMoov.co.uk, said: "Read nothing more into August's 1.3% rise than low transaction levels.
"Prices are jumping around from one month to the next and September could just as likely see a reverse."
Mortgage rationing Separate figures suggest that the Bank of England's Funding for Lending scheme, which started at the beginning of August, has yet to make mortgages cheaper or more easily available.
Commentators have pointed out that improving the flow of mortgage funds depends not so much on cutting the interest rates payable by borrowers, but on relaxing the stringent deposit requirements being set by lenders.
Figures from the financial information company Moneyfacts show that 68% of all mortgage deals on offer still need a deposit of at least 20% of the value of the home being bought.
A year ago, only 64% of mortgages required a deposit of this size.
Funding for Lending will offer lenders about £80bn of cheap money, on condition it is lent to borrowers.
At the end of July, some big lenders launched four- or five-year fixed rate deals at ultra-low interest rates of less than 3%.
These have now become slightly more expensive, with interest rates just above 3%, but in any case, they were aimed only at borrowers who could put down a 30% or 40% deposit.
At the other end of the scale, Moneyfacts says there are only five deals currently requiring no deposit at all, just 62 asking for a 5% deposit and 259 requiring a 10% down payment.
Altogether they amount to just 14% of all the deals on offer, similar to the position a year ago.
Aaron Strutt, of mortgage brokers Trinity Financial, said: "There are only four of five lenders offering stand-alone 95% loan-to-value mortgages that do not require parental assistance and the rates are still not cheap.
"There are a number of lenders offering 95% mortgages, but they often ask for a family guarantee. Also, a few of them will only lend in selected postcodes."

Why I would NEVER buy into cut-price supermarket school uniform deals

2012-09-01T10:56:00.000-07:00

What can you buy for £4? A coffee and a slice of cake in Costa? A magazine? A three-hour parking ticket at your local shopping centre?

Not much, that's for sure. So how can it be possible to rig out a child in an entire outfit for school for this very sum?

Every August we start seeing the supermarkets and chain stores wheeling out their back to school advertising campaigns, and the message is the same across the board: value. Actually, more than value; price crashing, cheapness, rock-bottom prices.

Which is fine, until you start really thinking about the numbers: how can they offer complete kits for under a fiver?

A recent advert for supermarket Aldi promotes its first foray into school uniforms and it appears to have undercut the competition with its £4 outfit. A round neck jumper and a pack of two plain white shirts are priced at just £1.25 each, with trousers at £1.50.

The store says the clothes work out at a cost-per-wear of just two pence a day. They are reportedly so confident that they are the cheapest uniform retailer they will apparently drop their prices further if a cheaper alternative could be found.

Speaking to the Retail Gazette, Tony Baines, managing director of corporate buying at Aldi, said: "We guarantee to offer the lowest price school uniform set, so there is no need to go to any other supermarket."Tesco, meanwhile, are offering a skirt in 100 per cent polyester for £1.75, 100 per cent polo shirt for 75p, and sweatshirt for £2.00 from their 'basic' range, while Asda are currently stocking schoolwear from £2.

''But should we really be buying into this? How CAN we be saving money in the long run? Surely the adage 'buy cheap, by twice' cannot be more apt then when applied to clothes that kids' wear day in, day out?''

Surely we should want to purchase the best quality we can afford to ensure our kids not only look well turned out (not something that manages to look limp, shapeless and as though it has been run up out of cheap curtain fabric on the hanger, let alone on a child) but so that we are NOT re-purchasing a pair of trousers that the knees have gone through after a couple of wears?

Or is that the point – the fact they cost less than two pounds means we don't MIND re-purchasing? Or do we even think 'it's only for school – I'd rather splash out more money on their party and special occasion clothes'?

And there's no escaping the worry that somewhere, someone is paying the price for our 'bargain' – if not exploited workers in some far flung sweatshop, then us the customer with stealth price increases elsewhere in store?

My colleague Theresa tells me she is concerned with the quality and the ethics of cheap uniform, and says that there's 'no way' that when allowing for materials, transport and overheads in store that 'everyone involved can have been paid a fair wage'.

"Plus," she says, "these are the clothes that our kids actually wear most often - we should be prepared to pay a fair price for them."

I agree with her. Admittedly, most of the stores have a statement about their sourcing, and suggest that all their products are obtained by fair means. Tesco, a founder member of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), says that it has a comprehensive approach to its 'Trading Fairly' policy and extends its support of 'decent labour standards' to everything it sources for its own-label brands in UK stores.

Aldi has a 'Social Monitoring Programme' which 'focuses on suppliers in high risk commodity areas', and a spokesperson told me 'all suppliers of our Back to School range are part of Aldi UK's ethical management programme' and that they 'require our suppliers to provide third party audits from all production sites of our own label clothing, shoes, toys and home textile products', they have, they said, 'received these audits from all production sites involved in producing the Back to School range'.

Asda meanwhile claim on their website that their policy ensures that when 'customers buy from Asda/Wal-Mart they know they are buying goods produced without exploitation and in acceptable and sustainable working conditions'.

Despite these assurance, I still worry about the ethics of buying into such cheap clothing, and I have to put myself in the wanting to pay a 'fair price' category. My son's school has an official supplier from whom his blazer, tie, winter coat, jumpers and sports' kit have to be purchased. I knew this when I elected to send him to that particular school, I budget for it each year, and do not have an issue with it.

His white shirts, grey trousers and grey socks can be purchased on the high street. For the past five years, I have bought these items from Marks and Spencer. The last time, I paid £8 for each pair, and two pairs lasted him the entire year. His shirts were £8 for a pack of two, and I bought two packs, along with five pairs of cotton socks for £5. So the cost of my high street uniform purchase, for an entire year, £37. Hardly excessive, when I'd think nothing of paying that for a top for myself.

But I realise I probably could have bought it all for half the price if I had chosen to rig him out at the same time as dashing into my local supermarket for a loaf of bread and a pint of milk. And if the clothing was not constantly being shoved in my face as the cheapest in town and was of comparable quality, perhaps I would have done. But as far as I am concerned, if you pay £1.75 for a shirt, you are going to get, quite simply, a £1.75 shirt.

Something mum of one Lily also takes issue with: "I wouldn't be averse to the idea of really cheap uniform if it didn't seem like it'd be made from uncomfortable rubbish fabrics like horrid polyester," she says, adding that instead, for those uniform 'extras' or spares she prefers to accept hand-me-down uniform of decent quality.

In fact, second hand school uniform sales seem to be the preferred choice over supermarket 'bargains' for many parents.

"I am big fan of our school's second hand sales," one mum told me, "Our school has one of those annoying almost everything from the school supplier uniforms and the summer dresses are £30 but I bought second hand - and after two summers' wear they're still good enough condition to be passed on again." This, to me, a much preferable option to a nasty, disposable, scratchy nylon item from a supermarket.

But ultimately, I have to ask myself this: would I go out to work in an outfit of dubious quality which cost just £4? One which I regarded as so cheap that it didn't matter what happened to it, I could just re-purchase it? Or because it wasn't the style of clothes I would chose to wear outside of work, it wasn't a problem if it was ill fitting, poorly made and looked like a sack-cloth once on? So no matter how hard the supermarket try and tempt me with their cut price uniforms, I remain resolute in my belief of buy cheap, buy twice. And that ultimately, no matter what they say, stores competing over who can produce the cheapest uniform is little more than an exercise in unethical retailing for all concerned – workers, customers and the environment.

London Metropolitan University students 'have until December'

2012-08-31T10:54:00.000-07:00

Non-EU students at LMU are being helped to make other university arrangements, the UKBA says

Some 2,600 foreign students affected by the London Metropolitan University visa ban have been given until at least 1 December to find a new course.

The UK Border Agency says it will write to students after 1 October and "will ensure you have 60 days" to make a new student application or leave the UK.
On Thursday, the UKBA revoked LMU's licence to authorise non-EU visas. Ministers said it was failing to monitor student attendance.
LMU said it would challenge the claims.
'Systemic failings' In Home Office guidance issued to foreign students on Friday, the UKBA said: "You do not need to do anything immediately. We will write to you after 1 October.
"We will ensure that you have 60 days to make a new student application or to arrange to leave the UK. This 60 days will start from the date we write to you."
On Thursday, the government had said it wanted to assess how many students will be successfully reallocated to alternative institutions before the UKBA sent out the 60-day notices.
The UKBA said London Metropolitan University had "failed to address serious and systemic failings" identified six months ago.
It said many foreign students at the university had no right to be in the UK.
Immigration Minister Damian Green said London Metropolitan University had failed in three particular areas:

More than a quarter of the 101 students sampled were studying at the university when they had no leave to remain in this country
Some 20 of 50 checked files found "no proper evidence" that the students' mandatory English levels had been reached
And some 142 of 250 (57%) sampled records had attendance monitoring issues, which meant it was impossible for the university to know whether students were turning up for classes or not.

Professor Malcolm Gillies, the university's vice chancellor, described the claims made against the institution as "not particularly cogent" and said it would be disputing them.
"I would go so far as to say that UKBA has been rewriting its own guidelines on this issue and this is something which should cause concern to all universities in the UK," he said.
Although there have been other suspensions, no other UK university has been fully stripped of its ability to recruit overseas students.

Vitamin B3 'helps kill superbugs'

2012-08-30T17:21:00.001-07:00

Antibiotic resistance is increasing

Vitamin B3 could be the new weapon in the fight against superbugs such as MRSA, researchers have suggested.

US experts found B3, also known as nicotinamide, boosts the ability of immune cells to kill Staphylococcusbacteria.

B3 increases the numbers and efficacy of neutrophils, white blood cells that can kill and eat harmful bugs.

The study, in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, could lead to a "major change in treatment", a UK expert said.

B3 was tested on Staphylococcal infections, such as the potentially fatal MRSA (Methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus).

Such infections are found in hospitals and nursing homes, but are also on the rise in prisons, the military and among athletes.

'Turn on'

The scientists used extremely high doses of B3 - far higher than that obtained from dietary sources - in their tests, carried out both on animals and on human blood.

And the researchers say there is as yet no evidence that dietary B3 or supplements could prevent or treat bacterial infections.

The researchers say B3 appears to be able to "turn on" certain antimicrobial genes, boosting the immune cells' killing power.

Prof Adrian Gombart, of Oregon State University's Linus Pauling Institute, who worked on the research, said: "This is potentially very significant, although we still need to do human studies.

"Antibiotics are wonder drugs, but they face increasing problems with resistance by various types of bacteria, especially Staphylococcus aureus.

"This could give us a new way to treat Staph infections that can be deadly, and might be used in combination with current antibiotics.

"It's a way to tap into the power of the innate immune system and stimulate it to provide a more powerful and natural immune response."

Prof Mark Enright, of the University of Bath, said: "Neutrophils are really the front line against infections in the blood and the use of nicotinamide seems safe at this dose to use in patients as it is already licensed for use.

"This could cause a major change in treatment for infections alongside conventional antibiotics to help bolster patients immune system.

"I would like to see in patient clinical trials but cannot see why this couldn't be used straight away in infected patients."

Mastercard's digital-wallet deal with Everything Everywhere

2012-08-28T07:21:00.001-07:00

Mastercard already powers contactless payments made with Barclaycards

Mastercard has secured a deal with the UK's biggest mobile telecoms operator to promote its digital wallet services.

The US-based payments company will co-develop services with Everything Everywhere (EE), which runs Orange and T-Mobile branded services.
Mastercard said the move would support the "accelerated adoption" of payments made with mobile devices thanks to EE's 27-million-strong customer base.
O2, Barclays, Visa and Paypal are among those developing rival services.
Mastercard said one of the first products would be a service in which users pre-pay money into an account before being able to spend it via handsets equipped with near-field communication (NFC) technology.
It added that more than 100,000 retailers in the country would be able to accept the contactless payments.
Over the course of a five-year partnership, the two firms said they planned to add other features, including in-store payments made via mobiles that would take funds straight from users' bank accounts, and person-to-person money transfers.
Mastercard said it also intended to take steps to help small-business owners accept payments. Many have been discouraged from fitting NFC equipment because of the costs involved.
The news builds on an existing relationship between the two companies. Mastercard provides the technology behind Orange's existing Quick Tap platform, which allows Barclaycard customers to make payments by tapping their card on an NFC-reader.

Barclays already offers money transfers via its Pingit smartphone app

Wallet wars
Many companies are competing for a slice of the digital-wallet market, betting that customers will prefer the convenience of not having to handle cash.
In the UK, Barclays has launched Pingit - a smartphone app that lets users transfer up to £750 a day to family, friends and small businesses.
The O2 Wallet is a rival app that allows "money messages" to be sent, and automatically fills in address and payment details for online purchases.
Later this year Visa will launch V.me, an app that allows user to store the details of several payment cards in their phone and then use them to make NFC payments.
In the US, Google already runs a similar service, Google Wallet, while Microsoft has unveiled plans for its own NFC-based Wallet Hub for Windows Phone handsets.
Ebay's PayPal unit has also teamed up with local payments firm Discover Financial Services to offer an alternative to NFC. It allows smartphone owners to make in-store purchases by typing in a telephone number and personal ID code at the cash register.
Benjamin Ensor, research director at tech specialists Forrester Research, said we were seeing the emergence of "digital-wallet wars" as telecoms, banking services and technology companies all sought to carve out a share of the nascent market. But he added they all faced the problem of low-level adoption.
"The key thing for any new payment system is finding a trigger to get people to use it in the first place," he told the BBC.
"The challenge for mobile payments for the past decade - and possibly the coming one - is that in theory you can use mobile payments for almost any payment you want, but there are very few that you can only do using mobile.
"People need to see clear benefits if they are going to want to overcome the barriers involved in learning and using a new system. So, deals like this bring more horses to the water, but the challenge is still getting them to drink."

Apple seeks to ban sale of eight Samsung phones in US

2012-08-27T20:32:00.000-07:00

Apple Inc.

LAST UPDATED AT 27 AUG 2012, 21:00*CHART SHOWS LOCAL TIME

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675.68	+ +12.46	+ +1.88

Frost and Sullivan says investors are worried the verdict could undermine the Android technology used in smartphones

Apple has asked a court to ban eight Samsung mobile phones in the US.

The phones include the Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S2 AT&T model, Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, Galaxy S2 T-Mobile model, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G, Galaxy S Showcase, Droid Charge and Galaxy Prevail.

It comes in the wake of Apple's US court victory over its rival, which saw the South Korean company ordered to pay $1.05bn (£655m) for copying patents.

Apple shares rose 1.88% to $675.68 in Monday trading on Wall Street.

The company has asked the US District Court in San Jose, California, for a preliminary injunction on the Samsung products, while a permanent injunction is sought.

At the same time, Samsung has also asked the court to delete an injunction on its Galaxy Tab 10.1, after the jury in the recent court case found it did not infringe Apple's design patent for the iPad tablet.

Judge Lucy Koh had issued an injunction on the tablet on 26 June.

Earlier on Monday, Samsung sent a memo to staff hitting out at what it called the "abuse of patent law".

Shares in Samsung fell 7% in Seoul trading, their biggest one-day fall in almost four years.

On 24 August, a US court ruled that Samsung had infringed Apple patents for mobile devices in one of the most significant rulings in a global intellectual property battle.

Samsung said it would be appealing against the verdict.

"We initially proposed to negotiate with Apple instead of going to court, as they had been one of our most important customers," the company said its memo to staff.

"However, Apple pressed on with a lawsuit, and we have had little choice but to counter sue, so that we can protect our company."

It said that the US court's verdict contrasted "starkly" with decisions made in other countries, including the UK, the Netherlands and Germany.

"History has shown there has yet to be a company that has won the hearts and minds of consumers and achieved continuous growth, when its primary means to competition has been the outright abuse of patent law, not the pursuit of innovation," the memo said.

"We trust that the consumers and the market will side with those who prioritise innovation over litigation, and we will prove this beyond doubt."

Sales worries

Analysts said investors were worried that the ruling could see certain products taken off the market.

"An adjustment in the next few days is unavoidable as the damage amount was much bigger than market expectations, and there are further uncertainties, such as the possibility of a sales ban," said John Park, from Daishin Securities.

In a separate move, the giant chipmaker ASML said Samsung would be investing $975m in its research programme into next-generation chipmaking technology and in buying a 3% share in the company.

Intel Corp and TSMC have both recently signed similar investment deals into the co-investment programme, whose aim is to tie in ASML's customers and develop new technology designed to lead to cheaper products.

Jury ruling

A nine-member jury in San Jose, California ruled on 24 August that Samsung had infringed Apple patents for mobile devices.

It was the the most closely-watched of many similar patent disputes being contested in courts around the world between electronics manufacturers.

In recent weeks, a court in South Korea ruled that both Apple and Samsung had copied each other, while a British court dismissed claims by the American company that Samsung had infringed its copyrights.

INTERNET NEWS: 'Clot nets' help stroke recovery

2012-08-26T23:26:00.001-07:00

INTERNET NEWS: 'Clot nets' help stroke recovery: Parts of the brain die when clots stop blood delivering oxygen Using small nets to extract blood clots from patients...

'Clot nets' help stroke recovery

2012-08-26T20:41:00.001-07:00

Parts of the brain die when clots stop blood delivering oxygen

Using small nets to extract blood clots from patients' brains may be the future of stroke care, according to two studies.

Clots block blood vessels, starving parts of the brain of oxygen, which leads to symptoms such as paralysis and loss of speech.

Two studies, presented in the Lancet medical journal, suggest extracting clots with nets could improve recovery.

The Stroke Association said it was very excited by the treatment's potential.

There are already techniques for reopening blocked blood vessels in people's brains.

Some patients will be given "clot-busting" drugs, but this needs to be in the hours just after the stroke and is not suitable for everyone.

Clot extraction

Other techniques have been developed to extract the clot. Some procedures pass a tube up through the groin to the brain. There the wire passes through the clot, forming a coil on the far side and then pulling the clot out. However, this is far from routine practice.

The latest methods involve a tiny wire cage instead of a coil. This pushes the clot up against the walls of the artery and enmeshes the clot in the wires, allowing doctors to pull the clot back out of the groin.

Two similar devices were compared with the current coil methods. One trial of 113 patients showed 58% had good brain function after three months, compared with 33% of those treated with the coil method, as well as a lower death rate.

Another study in 178 patients showed almost double the chance of living independently after treatment.

One of the researchers involved, Prof Jeffrey Saver from the University of California, Los Angeles, told the BBC that these techniques would become more common, as they are more likely to clear clots than drugs.

"Clot-busting drugs only partially reopen 40% of large blocked arteries. These devices partially reopen 70-90% of large blocked arteries.

"Second, these devices can be used in patients in whom it is not safe to give 'clot busting' drugs, such as patients taking anticoagulant medications, patients who had recent surgery, and patients who are between 4.5 to eight hours after stroke onset."

In the long term he can see drugs being used as a first option and then clot removal if the drugs fail or cannot be used.

'Major steps forward'

Responding to the research, the Stoke Association's Dr Clare Walton said clot-busters did not work for all patients so new techniques could help many patients.

She added: "Clot retrieval devices have the potential to be used with more stroke patients and are better at removing blood clots than clot-busting drugs.

"We are very excited about this potential new treatment and look forward to further developments."

Dr Philip Gorelick, from Michigan State University, said the studies were "major steps forward in the successful treatment of acute ischaemic stroke, and pave the way for new treatment options".

The research was published to coincide with a European Society of Cardiology meeting in Munich.

Forensic test can predict hair and eye colour from DNA

2012-08-24T23:50:00.000-07:00

The test can predict both hair and eye colour from samples left at a crime scene

Scientists have developed a forensic test that can predict both the hair and eye colour of a possible suspect using DNA left at a crime scene.

The team that developed the test says it could provide valuable leads in cases where perpetrators cannot be identified through DNA profiling.

The Hirisplex system could allow investigators to narrow down a large group of possible suspects.

Details appear in the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics.

Predicting phenotypes - outward traits such as hair colour or eye colour - from DNA information is an emerging field in forensics.

An important current approach, known as genetic profiling, involves comparing crime scene DNA with that from a suspect or with a profile stored in a database.

But this relies on the person either being among a pool of suspects identified by the police or having their profile in a DNA database.

Tools such as Hirisplex could be useful in those cases where the perpetrator is completely unknown to the authorities, said Prof Manfred Kayser, who led the study.

He said the test "includes the 24 currently best eye and hair colour predictive DNA markers. In its design we took care that the test can cope with the challenges of forensic DNA analysis such as low amounts of material."

Prof Kayser, from Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, added: "The test is very sensitive and produces complete results on even smaller DNA amounts than usually used for forensic DNA profiling."

He told BBC News that the journal article described everything needed to establish the test in a forensic lab, but that the team was also in touch with industry regarding their knowledge about hair and eye colour prediction.

The test system includes the six DNA markers previously used in a test for eye colour known as Irisplex, combining them with predictive markers for hair.

In the study, the authors used Hirisplex to predict hair colour phenotypes in a sample drawn from three European populations.

On average, their prediction accuracy was 69.5% for blonde hair, 78.5% for brown, 80% for red and 87.5% for black hair colour.

Analysis on worldwide DNA samples suggested the results were similar regardless of a person's geographic ancestry.

The team was also able to determine, with a prediction accuracy of about 86%, whether a brown-eyed, black haired person was of non-European versus European origin (excluding some nearby areas such as the Middle East).

The findings were also outlined at the sixth European Academy of Forensic Science conference in The Hague this week.

Mortgages: How to get the best deal

2012-08-22T21:14:00.002-07:00

Buying a home is the biggest purchase most people make during their lives

Qualifying for a mortgage can be a complicated affair and some first-time buyers may find it daunting. It is important to choose the correct lender and not to pay a higher rate than necessary.

That means that for some buyers, waiting to save more for a deposit can ultimately save many thousands of pounds on the annual mortgage bill.

By getting to know the process of how a mortgage works and what is required by the lenders, it is possible both to secure a lower interest rate and to increase the chances of being accepted for an appropriately sized loan.

A major difficulty with banks today is that they constantly change their lending criteria. To get a mortgage, applicants will need a good deposit, a clean credit history and a decent income.

For many first-time buyers the support of their parents may make the difference between getting a mortgage or not.

Deposits

The size of your deposit determines your monthly mortgage payments and the interest rate that you pay. Virtually all lenders use a loan-to-value banding system which means you pay much more if you have a smaller deposit.

We are consistently advising our clients in a position to save a bigger deposit to put down another 5% of the property value. This may be a lot to ask at a time when money is tight, but there are usually big savings to be made with another 5% added to the deposit.

Looking at the Post Office's mortgage rates, for example, the lowest two-year fixed rate they offer if you have a 10% deposit is 5.75%. Yet, with another 5% deposit, the mortgage rate drops to 4.29%.

So, over two years on a £200,000 interest-only mortgage, you would pay £5,840 less if you are able to save the extra 5% deposit.

Interest rate savings are more substantial with a longer term mortgage.

Northern Rock's lowest two-year fixed rate for those with a 30% deposit is 3.39%, but if you have a 10% deposit the rate increases to 5.88%.

Borrowers able to access the lowest Northern Rock rates will save £8,965 (including arrangement fees) over two years on a £200,000 mortgage compared with those able to take a fixed-rate with the smallest deposit available.

'Clamping down'

Before a bank will offer a mortgage, they will want you to know what your monthly expenses are and how much you have left in your bank account at the end of the month.

Keeping on top of personal finances can make getting a mortgage easier

Virtually all unsecured debt is taken into consideration and any credit card or loan payments will reduce the amount that you can borrow.

Banks have clamped down on borrowers if they are attempting to take out an interest-only mortgage and it is likely that you will now require a 25% deposit to qualify for interest-only. Customers of HSBC and First Direct must earn a minimum of £30,000 a year to qualify for an interest-only mortgage

Interest-only mortgages offer a more affordable way of getting on the property ladder and the difference in the cost of the monthly payments is as much as £360 a month. This is on a £200,000 mortgage with a 25-year term on a typical interest rate.

Key tips for getting a mortgage include:

Ensuring you are on the electoral roll
Making sure you do not miss any financial commitments. Missing a credit card or loan payment will count against you
Reducing your personal debt will enable you to borrow more
Ensuring you do not apply for credit while a mortgage application is going through
Keeping pay-slips and P60s
Checking your credit rating to make sure that you know what your credit score is
Doing your homework to find out what the lender requires from you.

There are some good options for borrowers looking to remortgage, but rates are more expensive than they were three months ago.

Whether you should remortgage really does depend on the lender that you are with and the type of rate you are on.

If you are on your lender's standard variable rate then there is a danger your bank will raise your rate by more than any Bank of England base rate change.

I would advise you to call your lender to see what they will offer you to stay with them and then research the best rate available to you in the market.

It is still possible to remortgage on to a competitive rate which is lower than the average standard variable rate. Two-year base rate trackers are available from 2.28% and two-year fixed-rate deals start at 3%. Five-year fixed-rate deals are more expensive as they start at 4.39%.

Everything Everywhere gets 4G go-ahead from Ofcom

2012-08-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

4G will provide super-fast broadband to mobiles

Telecoms regulator Ofcom has allowed Everything Everywhere, the company behind Orange and T-Mobile in the UK, to use its existing bandwidth to launch fourth-generation (4G) mobile services.

The move means 4G, which allows much faster downloads, could launch in the UK earlier than previously planned.

Ofcom said the move would deliver "significant benefits" to consumers that outweigh any competition concerns.

But Vodafone and O2 expressed surprise and disappointment at the decision.

Ofcom plans to auction 4G bandwidth to other providers next year.

Everything Everywhere will be allowed to offer 4G services from 11 September.

But, as the regulator pointed out, the timing will be a commercial decision for the company itself. The operator has been trialling 4G services at a number of local businesses in Cumbria in the north of England since the end of June.

Ofcom said delaying the mobile operator from launching 4G would be "to the detriment of consumers".

'Hugely disappointed'

Everything Everywhere itself said the regulator's decision was "great news for the UK".

"4G will drive investment, employment and innovation and we look forward to making it available later this year, delivering superfast mobile broadband to the UK," the company said.

The firm's two main competitors in the UK mobile market were less than pleased with the ruling.

They claim that they are disadvantaged as only Everything's spectrum can be reconfigured to handle 4G, while they will have to wait to buy spectrum at an auction next year.

"We are hugely disappointed with today's announcement, which will mean the majority of customers will be excluded from the first wave of digital services," said a spokesperson for O2.

Vodafone was more forthright, saying it was "shocked" at Ofcom's decision.

"The regulator has shown a careless disregard for the best interests of consumers, businesses and the wider economy through its refusal to properly regard the competitive distortion created by allowing one operator to run services before the ground has been laid for a fully competitive 4G market," a company spokesperson said.

Analysts said the two companies were right to be concerned, with the examples of other countries suggesting those network providers that got a head start on their rivals were often able to build successful 4G networks.

"Everything now has a golden opportunity to establish an early lead in the UK's 4G market, but it will only be able to exploit this window if it is able to build a successful launch strategy," said Thomas Wehmeier at Informa Telecoms & Media.

He said much would now depend on the company'

s ability to persuade mobile phone manufacturers to build smartphones capable of working on its 4G network.

Faster downloads

Everything Everywhere has also announced that it will sell some of its 4G spectrum to rival Three.

This was a condition of the European Commission allowing the 2010 merger of Orange and T-Mobile in the UK.

Three's chief executive Dave Dyson said this deal would "more than double the capacity available to customers".

As Everything is not obliged to make the spectrum available until September 2013, this deal will not give Three a head start in launching its own 4G services, however.

Ofcom has issued Everything Everywhere with licences to launch what are called Long-Term Evolution (LTE) services. This is one of a number of broadband technologies that allow the transfer of high-bandwidth data such as video streaming and mapping services.

Other mobile phone networks will be allowed to bid for 4G bandwidth early next year.

The auction will offer the equivalent of three-quarters of the mobile spectrum currently in use - some 80% more than released in the 3G auction which took place in 2000.

Ofcom wants to see at least four wholesalers of 4G mobile services, so that consumers will benefit from better services at lower prices.

The auction will sell chunks of radio spectrum to support 4G, which will allow users to download data such as music and videos at much faster speeds.

Asia's fastest data cable links Tokyo to Singapore

2012-08-20T19:19:00.002-07:00

The route for the new cable avoids Taiwan, where earthquakes are common

A new high-speed undersea data cable has opened to traffic in Asia.

The 7,800km Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE) connects Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

It transfers data via an optical fibre system at 40 gigabits per second, and is three milliseconds faster than any other cable between Singapore and Tokyo.

The gain in speed may sound small, but could prove critical to financial trades made out of the region.

So-called "high frequency trades", controlled by computers, involve making what may be hundreds of thousands of transactions in less than a second - all determined by a program that tracks market conditions.

With banks and hedge funds competing against each other, the size of the profit or loss can come down to a matter of beating the competition by a fraction of a second, explained Ralph Silva, a strategist at Silva Research Network.

"High frequency trading is basically computer trading - you program a set of rules and as events happen - the computer decides buy or sell commands," he said.

"As all incoming data is received by all banks at the same time, and because the computers are all the same with the same speed of processors, the length of time the command takes to get to the exchange makes a big difference.

"So if all banks come to the same trading decision at the same time, the one to get the transaction to the master computer first wins.

"Three milliseconds in computer time is an hour in human time."

The route for the new cable was chosen to be as straight as possible, reducing the time to get information from one end to the other to 65 milliseconds.

The data transfer capacity of 40Gbps is the equivalent of downloading a high-resolution DVD in about two seconds.

Avoiding trouble areas

The new facility adds to a web of undersea cables in the waters around Japan.

Many undersea cables were damaged by a powerful earthquake that hit Japan in March 2011

These include ones run by Australian operator Telstra International; Taiwan's largest phone operator Chunghwa Telecom; and the global telecommunications service provider Pacnet, based in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Many were damaged by a powerful earthquake near Japan's northeast coast in March 2011.

An earlier earthquake in December 2006, off the south-west coast of Taiwan, also broke several cables, disrupting telecommunications in Asian countries.

The problems helped influence where the new cable was laid, said Japan's biggest telecommunications provider.

"We avoided the area around Taiwan, where earthquakes are common, and laid the route near the Philippines instead, making the cable very safe and reliable," said Hiroyuki Matsumoto, senior director of network services at NTT, one of the four partners involved in the project.

After 2011's earthquake and tsunami his firm reported that half a million telephone circuits and about 150,000 internet circuits went down in Japan because of subsea cable damage.

To repair the cable network, telecoms operators had to send out ships equipped with remotely controlled robots, able to dive to a depth of 2,500m (8,200ft).

The other companies involved in the project are PLDT, the Philippines' main telecom company; StarHub, the second-largest mobile phone operator in Singapore; and Telekom Malaysia.

PLDT said that the venture was the first direct cable connection between the Philippines and Japan, and "the largest-capacity international submarine cable system ever to land in the Philippines".

Ramadan fasting dilemma when sun never sets

2012-08-17T22:43:00.000-07:00

Land of the midnight sun: the day is more than 20 hours long during summer in northern Finland

Practising Muslims across the world are observing Ramadan. For one month, they are fasting between sunrise and sunset. But what do Muslims do in a town where the sun never really goes down?

The town of Rovaniemi in Finland lies in a land of extremes.

At 66 degrees north it straddles the Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland. During midwinter it is cloaked in total darkness. But in the summer it is bathed in daylight.

The long days pose a particular problem for fasting Muslims like Shah Jalal Miah Masud.

The 28-year-old moved to Rovaniemi - 830km (515 mile) north of the capital, Helsinki - from Bangladesh five years ago to study IT. He has not had any food or water for 21 hours. And he laughs.

"It doesn't get dark. It always looks like the same, the sun is always on the horizon and it's quite difficult to get what the time is actually right now," he says.

It is 11 o'clock in the evening and the sun has only just dipped below the horizon. The sky has turned a beautiful deep, rich blue. This is as dark as it will get, then the sun will rise again in five hours.

Masud says it is difficult to fast according to Finnish time and admits he is tired. But despite the hunger and fatigue, he says it is a pleasure to observe Ramadan during the long Finnish days.

There is another option which reduces the number of fasting hours - mark its duration by the rising and setting of the sun in countries far to the south of Finland. Dr Abdul Mannan - a local Imam and president of the Islam Society of Northern Finland - says there are two schools of thought.

"The Egyptian scholars say that if the days are long - more than 18 hours - then you can follow the Mecca time or Medina time, or the nearest Muslim country time," says Dr Mannan.

"The other (point of view) from the Saudi scholars says whatever the day is - long or short - you have to follow the local time."

Nafisa Yeasmin follows the Mecca timetable

Dr Mannan says the majority of Muslims in northern Finland observe either Mecca's fasting hours or Turkish time because it is the nearest Muslim country to Finland.

For Nafisa Yeasmin, a researcher at the University of Lapland, choosing when to fast has not been an easy decision. She moved from Dhaka in Bangladesh six years ago with her husband and two children.

Her spacious Scandinavian-style kitchen - full of white cupboards and wooden work surfaces - smells of frying onions, turmeric, chilli and cumin.

As she prepares her traditional iftar meal, she recalls her first Ramadan in Rovaniemi when she decided to fast according to Finnish daylight hours, going without food for up to 20 hours a day.

"It was very difficult to follow because in Bangladesh we are used to 12 hours' daytime and 12 hours' night-time," she says.

Ramadan: most sacred month in Islam

Muslims abstain from food and drink while fasting during daylight hours
Ramadan is intended to increase self-control
Muslims try to give up bad habits and pray more during the holy month
Families and friends often gather to break the fast after sunset with the iftar meal

"Then I thought, not any more. I have to follow Mecca's timetable. But I'm a little bit worried whether Allah will accept it or not."

Many Muslims come to Finland as refugees from all over the world, particularly Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Since 2001, Finland has accepted 750 refugees a year. New arrivals are often sent to live in towns like Rovaniemi in the far north in a government resettlement programmes.

In Rovaniemi the long days are not the only obstacle that fasting Muslims face.

No shop in this town of 60,000 sells halal food, which is prepared according to Islamic law. The nearest town, Oulu, that does is 300km away. Another option is Lulea, across the border in Sweden.

Yeasmin opts for Lulea, which is a six-hour round trip journey by car, with a shopping list full of items, including black chickpeas, dates, rice crackers and lots of halal meat.

Understandably, she has stocked up for the whole month of Ramadan. To make her point, she opens her huge white fridge - covered in her children's school photos - to reveal all seven trays crammed full of frozen halal meat.

HSBC pulls ultra-low 2.99%, five-year, mortgage deal

2012-08-16T10:20:00.000-07:00

HSBC won't say how many applicants were successful

HSBC has withdrawn the 2.99%, five-year, mortgage deal which it launched just a month ago.

The bank has used up all the money it had allocated to fund the record low-rate deal.

Borrowers from HSBC will still be able to apply for home loans for the same length of time, but at the slightly higher rate of interest of 3.29%.

The bank refused to say how much money it had lent at 2.99%, or how many people had applied successfully.

"There has been fantastic demand," said a spokeswoman.

"It was a very popular product."

Other lends to offer similar deals were the RBS group (including NatWest), Santander and the Nationwide.

They were encouraged to lend at such low levels by the prospect of being able to obtain cheap funds from the Bank of England, under its recently launched Funding for Lending scheme.

Typically the ultra-cheap loans required borrowers to put down a 40% deposit, which put them out of reach of most first-time buyers.

The loan from HSBC had a fee of £1,495.

Ray Boulger of mortgage broker John Charcol said: "I suspect it has been withdrawn because the cost of borrowing funds in the wholesale markets has gone up a bit in the past week or so."

Bolt sprints from UK tax authorities

2012-08-15T21:08:00.000-07:00

The world's fastest man will not compete on UK soil again until the British Government taxes him less. Usain Bolt - he earnt around £12.7m last year - could see his £12.5m Puma sponsorship deal taxed at the 50% higher tax rate were he to compete in Britain in future.

Is the Jamaican - he avoided running in the UK for three years until the Olympics - right to challenge HMRC?

Taxman races Bolt

HMRC claims that Jamaican Bolt (and others foreign athletes like him) should not just be taxed on their winnings but also on a proportion of their sponsorship earnings - their wider earnings, in other words. Especially in the current climate and with a shrinking UK tax base generally.

But the Olympics was a tax-free event for the triple gold medalist (and others) as the Government switched the tax rules - with some pressure from the International Olympic Committee - to create some concessions. (There were other concessions too for the Champions League Final at Wembley.)

£9bn space to perform

British taxpayers, on the other hand, did not complain much about coughing up the £9bn to give Bolt the space to perform at the Olympics. And without that space, little opportunity to showcase sponsorship. Bolt, remember, is not just an athlete: running is what the 25-year-old does for a job (and is very well paid for being the best in world at it).

"As soon as the law changes I'll be here all the time," Bolt is quoted in the Express: "I love being here, I have so many Jamaican fans here and it's wonderful."

Bolt has previously spurned UK sporting events because of the personal tax impact. In 2010 he turned down the chance of a UK three-way fight between himself, Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay. According to Celebrity Networth, the athlete's net worth rings in at $30m.

Nadal support

Bolt has supporters on the tax issue. Spanish-born Rafa Nadal has also complained of the UK tax system (though Spain could equally do with tax revenues currently).

Should HMRC be more accommodating to big-name athletes? Or do you agree with their approach? Let us know in the comments.

Hypersonic jet Waverider fails Mach 6 test

2012-08-15T15:51:00.000-07:00

The Waverider's engine was supposed to have ignited four seconds after it was released

The US Air Force has said an attempt to fly its hypersonic jet Waverider at Mach 6 (3,600mph; 5795km/h) failed.

The unmanned aircraft had been designed to fly at six times the speed of sound after being dropped from a B-52 bomber.
But officials said that a faulty control fin prevented it from starting its supersonic-combustion ramjet engine, and the craft was lost.
It marks the second time in a row that the Air Force has been unable to test the technology as planned.
The latest attempt had sought to fly at its maximum speed for five minutes.
But a spokesman said that a problem was recognised 16 seconds after a rocket booster was triggered to increase its velocity, ahead of the scramjet engine being started.
Hypersonic disappointment When the rocket unit detached 15 seconds later the X-51A craft lost control and broke apart, falling into the Pacific Ocean north-west of Los Angeles.
"It is unfortunate that a problem with this subsystem caused a termination before we could light the scramjet engine," Charlie Brink, of the Air Force Research Laboratory at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, said in a statement.
"All our data showed we had created the right conditions for engine ignition and we were very hopeful to meet our test objectives."
The previous test aircraft was also lost to the Pacific after it was unable to restart its engine.
But the original test flight, in 2010, flew at five times the speed of sound for three minutes.
The Pentagon - which helped fund the project - has been testing hypersonic technologies in an effort to develop faster missiles.
It has also been suggested the research could eventually help build a commercial plane with the promise of London to New York trips taking as little as an hour, or Tokyo to Paris journeys slightly more than double that time.
For now only one X-51A vehicle remains and the Air Force has not yet decided whether to organise a fourth test.