Pope John Paul II speaks to millions in Dublin visit

In his first visit to Ireland, Pope John Paul II addresses a crowd of more than one million in Dublin and makes an impassioned plea for an end to violence between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. In 1978, Pope John Paul II, born as Karol Wojtyla in Wadowice, Poland became the first Polish Pope in history and the first non-Italian pope in 456 years.
Fluent in seven modern languages and Latin, the pope fully embraced his role as ambassador of the Roman Catholic Church, and travelled more extensively than any other pope in history. Known for his staunch anti-communism, the Pope was an outspoken supporter of democratic movements in his native Poland and elsewhere during the 1980s. He survived being shot in an assassination attempt in 1981 and died from a heart condition aged 84 in April 2005

Death in Ancient Civilisations

 

Hail to thee, O my father Osiris, I have come and I have embalmed this my flesh so that my body may not decay.

Inscription on one of the linen wrappings of the Egyptian mummy of Thothmes II, 1493-1479 B.C.

Egypt
Ancient Egypt, with its mummies and vast pyramids seems uniquely characterised by objects associated with death. These monuments, inscriptions, and the opulent artifacts found around the bodies within them betray a complex belief in the afterlife. After death, Ancient Egyptians believed that the ‘Ka,’ an entity closely associated with the physical body was able to eat, drink and smell, and essentially enjoy the afterlife.
The soul, or ‘Ba’ could not survive without the body, and what’s more, had to be able to recognize its body to be able to return to it. Thus the body’s preservation was essential in order for a person both to reach the afterlife, and to be able to enjoy it. To this end early Egyptians would leave their dead in the desert to be preserved in the dry surroundings, but increasingly mummification became common and remained so for three millennia.



Mummification
The mummification process involved ritually washing the corpse and then removing any organs that might contribute to the rotting process. Therefore the liver, stomach, lungs and intestines were all removed and placed in ‘canopic’ jars to be interred along with the body. The brain, an organ not believed to be of much use in the afterlife was removed through the nostrils, and often disposed of.
The heart would be left in situ, or placed near the throat, due to the belief that the heart was the source of a person’s life force and that any damage to it would result in a ‘second death.’ After this, the body would be dried out and padded so that it retained its lifelike proportions. It would be preserved with natron or bitumen. Indeed the term ‘mummy’ is thought to be from the Arabic name for bitumen or the embalmed corpse ‘mumiya’.
Before the final process of wrapping the body and entombing it, a priest, wearing the mask of the Jackal-headed god Anubis (who oversaw the judging of the soul in the afterlife) would perform the last rites. This involved a ceremonial opening of the mouth to grant the dead the power to speak and eat in the next life. The body would then be wrapped in hundreds of yards of line bandages and decorated, often with the person’s face painted over the carefully placed bandages. The whole process is thought to have taken up to 70 days. These mummies would be put in a series of coffins, each inscribed inside and out with magical texts and symbols to facilitate the passage to the afterlife.



Ancient Mesopotamia
The Mesopotamians, a civilisation existing in and around modern day Iraq around the same time as the time of Pharaohs of Egypt had a very different view of death. For them, death was something to be feared. In the Mesopotamian tradition, humans were created from clay mixed with the blood of a sacrificed god. Thus, being partly immortal, the spirit did not die after death but lingered on to suffer a dismal afterlife. While retaining all the needs and emotions of the living, after death the soul would live a dark and subterranean existence eating only dust and clay in a place deprived of drinkable water. The only respite from this existence was the food and offerings of their descendants. This meant that the confiscation of an enemy’s body from the care of the family was a terrible punishment.
The dead were largely feared in Ancient Mesopotamia. It was thought that distressed, murdered and evil spirits could escape the land of the death to cause havoc among the living through entering the bodies of the living through their ears. Likewise, the dead could rise up and torment the living if not given a proper burial, so even the bodies of enemies were buried in a manner such as to prevent this from happening. Most were buried in cemeteries, but the bodies of babies have been found under the floors of houses, often curiously buried in cooking pots.
Due to the inevitability of the prospect of a grim afterlife, whether you were good or bad, very few provisions were made for the afterlife itself. Ancient Mesopotamian literature writes of the goddess Ishtar who, in passing through the gates to the underworld gradually had to give up all her possessions before she could meet with Ereshkigal, the queen of the underworld. However grave goods were still common.
These often took the form of pots for food and water, and indeed skeletons from around 2900B.C. have commonly been found with their hands held to their mouths cupping a small bowl. Other grave goods are thought to be for use on the way to the afterlife, as gifts to the gods, or in the cases of high-ranking individuals, as displays of personal wealth.



Ancient Greece and Rome
The treatments of death in Ancient Greece and Rome were rather similar, largely due to the extensive borrowing of Greek culture by early Romans who interpreted their own gods through existing Greek mythology. This meant that their conceptions of the afterlife shared many elements. Both believed in a similar god of the underworld, Hades in Greek and Pluto in Roman, who ruled over the underworld with his wife Persephone or Proserpina.
After death, souls would give an account of their lives to three judges and be consigned either to the Fields of Asphodel, or the Pit of Tartarus. In some literature, if a soul had been exceptionally good it might go to Elysium, or the Isles of the Blessed, a place usually reserved for heroes and the gods. En-route to Hades, one had to be ferried across the infernal River Styx by the demonic boatman Charon. A coin was often placed in the mouth of the body as his payment, with some believing that the greater the value of the offering the smoother the passage to Hades. Some souls were even provided with honey cakes to give to the demonic three-headed dog Cerberus that guarded the gates of the underworld.
A proper burial was important to both the Greeks and the Romans, who believed that the dead could linger as ghosts if the living failed to carry out the appropriate funeral rites. In Greece, immortality could only be attained through remembrance by the living. To this end monumental earth mounds, rectangular tombs, and elaborate marble stelai and statues were erected. The Romans took death equally seriously, some having their tombs constructed in their lifetime to ensure a proper send off.
Though most people were buried in early Rome, in later centuries cremation became popular, with urns buried under grand commemorative monuments. Despite the increasing popularity of cremation, Romans held onto the curious practice of os resectum in which a severed finger joint was buried where the rest of the body had been cremated. It has been suggested that this was to purify the family of the deceased while mourning was taking place, or could be seen as a symbolic burial after cremation.
For both the Greeks and the Romans attention to the dead would continue well past the funeral. The Greeks believed that the dead were capable of malevolent action if food offerings were not made. The Romans continued this practice, sometimes going as far as to incorporate ‘feeding tubes’ into the grave to facilitate the practice of giving food and wine to the dead.



Ancient China
In ancient China it was believed that death was just a prolongation of life. Instead of believing in individual salvation per se, the ancient Chinese believed that the dead would continue in the spirit life much as they had done in this life. Thus provisions were made for those that had died for use in the afterlife.
In noble and royal funerals these tombs and grave goods could rival those used by the living. In some royal Shang Dynasty (1600B.C. – 1046 B.C.) tombs a practice emerged of taking servants and concubines to the grave with them, and what’s more, the hundreds of skeletons uncovered have indicated that these sacrifices may have been interred alive. However as time passed human sacrifice stopped. By the Han dynasty (206 B.C. – 220 A.D.), pottery figures were increasingly used instead. However this did not make these graves any less impressive: Liu Sheng’s tomb in Mangheng was designed like an actual house, complete with windows, stables, storerooms, cookbooks and a bathroom, while the discovery of the ‘Terracotta Warriors’ in 1974 uncovered a massive burial complex, complete with 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, acrobats, strongmen and officials.
This tradition would only get more popular. By the Song Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.) fairly cheap grave goods could be mass produced, giving the less well off the chance for a sumptuous afterlife.
In addition to this, it was believed that children had obligations to their ancestors for the sacrifice they had undertaken in having children and that as in life these duties continued even after death. Spirits in ancient China had the power to influence people’s lives on earth and that if they were not cared for by the living they might return, causing untold mischief. Thus an ancestor cult emerged, with people making offerings and observing ceremonies for their line of descendants.
Even the dead were buried with sets of bronze vessels, thought to be so that they could continue making offerings to their own ancestors. This developed further with Confucian influence, which instigated ‘spirit tablets’ to be placed in the family shrine and revered, with offerings to remoter ancestors being made at longer intervals than to those who had just died.

John Hancock and the 1765 British Stamp Act

 

We didn’t want to pay taxes to a king and to a parliament where we didn’t have a voice, and we didn’t have any representation. We have a natural resentment towards government which is how we were born.

Aaron Sorkin, Screenwriter ‘West Wing’ & ‘The Social Network’

In 1763, the Seven Years War ends. The Treaty of Paris sees the defeated France relinquish territories in North America to Britain. Many of its American subjects celebrate the victory for which they had fought. But victory comes at a crippling cost. The British Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Grenville, calculates the deficit at now over £122 million.
As Americans only pay a quarter of the taxes of British subjects, his solution is the 1765 Stamp Act. Now, almost anything written or printed would have to be done on special taxed paper. Boston born Benjamin Franklin who has made his fortune in printing, sees its unfairness. There have been seven generations since John Rolfe’s first tobacco harvest, and each has enjoyed low taxes. Most colonial assemblies condemn the Act.
In August 1765, Bostonians attack the house of one of their own, Andrew Oliver, for collecting the Stamp tax. Demonstrations spread through the colonies and in March 1766, Parliament repeals the Stamp Act. But in 1767, Parliament creates the Townshend Acts imposing custom duties on imports. British troops, known as redcoats, move from their frontier outposts to the resistant seaports. The British King, George III, sends 4,000 troops to Boston alone.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY
Boston is a crucial port in a global trade worth £20million to the British Empire. Boston dockyards are some of the busiest, producing 200 ships a year from the vast American timber reserves. A third of all British shipping is built in the colonies. Timber fuels the 18th century global economy much like oil does today. Across New England, marks identify the tallest trees destined for the masts of British ships. And it’s Boston that is the gateway to a market that accounts for 40% off all British exports.
It’s to protect these interests that the British turn Boston into a city under occupation. There is one redcoat for every four Bostonians. American fishing fleets ship out thousands of tonnes of salted cod and return with sugar and molasses to make rum. The British tax both.

PATRIOT OR SMUGGLER?
In 1768, British customs officials spring a surprise raid on one of the richest men in Boston, John Hancock. Hancock’s crew are carrying a hundred casks of imported wines and don’t want to pay the duty to a king that’s 5000kms away. To the British, Hancock is just a common smuggler. They seize his ship. It sparks citywide riots.

Did you Know

Within just a few generations, the colonists are on average two inches taller than their English counterparts. Their children are now twice as likely to reach adulthood and they are 20% wealthier.

Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod. This was a vital innovation, ‘for American thunderstorms (were) ferocious and the largely wooden towns of colonial America suffered again and again from devastating fires.’ Hugh Brogan: The Penguin History of the USA.

 

Stephen Lee: Snooker player given 12-year ban for match-fixing

Snooker player Stephen Lee has been banned for 12 years after being found guilty of seven match-fixing charges.

Snooker's governing body says it is "the worst case of corruption" it has ever seen but the Englishman continues to insist he has done nothing wrong.

Lee, from Trowbridge in Wiltshire, told the BBC he was "devastated" by the ban and said he was "totally innocent".

“I concluded that Mr Lee did not strike me as a cynical cheat, but rather as a weak man who under financial pressure, succumbed to the temptation.”

Match-fixing tribunal chairman Adam Lewis QC on Stephen Lee

The former world number five's suspension will end on 12 October, 2024, the date of his 50th birthday.

In the meantime, he cannot play in any game sanctioned by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA).

"The WPBSA has a zero tolerance approach to match fixing and this is further evidence of our uncompromising approach to dealing with such issues," said a spokesman.

Lee was also ordered to pay £40,000 costs to help cover legal and other expenses of the WPBSA in bringing the case.

He has the right to appeal against the verdict and sentence but would be required to submit any such appeal within a fortnight.

Independent tribunal chairman Adam Lewis QC had warned the player he faced "a significant sanction" following a hearing in Bristol earlier in September.

The snooker match Lee fixed

His 35-page summary of the case published on 16 September said three groups of gamblers made a total profit of nearly £100,000 from betting on his matches.

In a statement published on Wednesday, Lewis said the player was taken advantage of by others.

"I concluded that Mr Lee did not strike me as a cynical cheat, but rather as a weak man who under financial pressure, succumbed to the temptation to take improper steps that he may well have justified to himself as not really wrong, because the ultimate result of the match, win or lose, was the same," he added.

"These breaches occurred when Mr Lee was in a financially perilous state not entirely of his own making and was finding it difficult to obtain entry to enough tournaments.

Stephen Lee's career

• Turned professional: 1992
• Ranking tournament wins: 5 (Grand Prix 1998; LG Cup 2001; Scottish Open 2002; Welsh Open 2006, PTC Grand Finals 2012)
• Highest tournament break: 145
• Highest world ranking: Five
• Ranking at time of suspension: Eight

"As a weak man in a vulnerable position, he succumbed to temptation. I consider it unlikely that he was the prime mover or instigator of the activity. It seems to me likely that advantage was taken of him."

Lewis points out that Lee previously had a police investigation into match-fixing claims hanging over him, having been arrested in 2010, before the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to pursue charges in early October 2012.

Lee, who has been a professional for more than 20 years and the winner of five ranking titles, was found to have fixed the outcome in seven matches in 2008 and 2009.

The tribunal ruled he deliberately lost matches against Ken Doherty and Marco Fu at the 2008 Malta Cup and agreed to lose the first frame against both Stephen Hendry and Mark King at the 2008 UK Championship.

Mark King 'hasn't got any sympathy' for match-fixer Stephen Lee

In addition, Lee lost matches by a predetermined score to Neil Robertson at the 2008 Malta Cup and to Mark Selby at the 2009 China Open.

Lee similarly conspired to lose his 2009 World Championship first round match to Ryan Day, going on to be defeated 10-4.

If his offences had taken place more recently, he would have been given a mandatory lifetime ban under a tougher new disciplinary regime aimed at countering corruption, but his case was dealt with under the rules which applied at the time of the matches in question.

Fellow professional Joe Jogia was given a two-year ban in July 2012 for "lower-end" offences after an investigation into suspicious betting patterns on a match from which he withdrew with a leg injury.

The matches Lee fixed

2008 Malta Cup: Conspired to lose to Ken Doherty and Marco Fu, as well as losing to Neil Robertson by a pre-determined score, with the match ending 5-1 to Robertson.
2008 UK Championship: Agreed to lose the first frame in matches against Stephen Hendry and Mark King.
2009 China Open: To lose to Mark Selby by a set score, Selby winning 5-1.
2009 World Championship: That Ryan Day would win by a pre-arranged score, Day winning 10-4.

Four-time world champion John Higgins was found guilty of "giving the impression" he would breach betting rules, and of failing to report an approach in 2010. He was banned for six months.

Australian Quinten Hann was banned for eight years in 2006 for match-fixing offences after a newspaper sting in which he accepted a proposal to lose a China Open match.

While Hann remains suspended, South African Peter Francisco has returned to the game at a low level after serving a five-year match-fixing ban handed down in 1995, following his 10-2 loss to Jimmy White at the World Championship.

WPBSA chairman Jason Ferguson said: "We take no pride in having to deal with such serious issues. However, this demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that snooker is free from corruption."

Cuckoo finch fools host with multiple eggs

Cuckoo finch chicks can go undetected in prinia nests

Cuckoo finches lay multiple eggs in the nests of other birds to make it harder to detect the 'imposters', researchers have found.

The name cuckoo is common to many parasitic bird species that rely upon others to raise their young.

African tawny-flanked prinias are the targets of cuckoo finches in southern Zambia.

Prinias' egg colours vary widely but by laying multiple eggs in a nest, cuckoo finches reduce the risk of rejection.

The results of the study undertaken by researchers from the University of Exeter and the University of Cambridge are published in the journal Nature Communications.

Cuckoos clocked

"Many brood parasites [such as cuckoo finches] and hosts are locked in ongoing evolutionary arms races, with parasites evolving attack strategies to get their eggs accepted - such as egg mimicry - and hosts evolving defences - such as egg rejection," explained lead author Dr Martin Stevens from the University of Exeter.

"Our work shows that the cuckoo finch has evolved another novel strategy of attack, whereby it defeats both sensory and cognitive components of host rejection behaviour."

The female African tawny-flanked prinia, a species of warbler, lays eggs in a wide spectrum of colours in an effort to fool cuckoo finches.

Although cuckoos have adapted their egg patterns to mimic those of their hosts they cannot guarantee their eggs will exactly match those of their chosen nest.

"Having highly variable eggs among individuals makes it hard for each female cuckoo finch to match many of the egg types that different prinias lay," explained Dr Stevens.

To understand more about prinias' egg rejection behaviour, the scientists experimented by mixing the clutches in birds' nests.

 

Cuckoo finches eggs (right) can closely mimic those of African tawny-flanked prinias (left)

One theory was that the birds reject eggs based on their appearance compared with the rest of the clutch.

Alternatively, researchers thought the birds could be using a learnt "internal template" of what their eggs should look like to identify imposters.

Results of the trials suggested the birds combined the two methods to asses the colour and pattern of the eggs.

But as a result of comparing the eggs with others in the clutch, the birds struggled to successfully identify and reject the parasites as the proportion of foreign eggs in the nest increased.

Researchers found that the cuckoo finches repeatedly targeted the same nests to improve the probability of their eggs being cared for.

"In general there are many species of brood parasite that we don't know much about and it will be exciting in the future to see what strategies they have to successfully parasitise hosts," said Dr Stevens.

"It would be great to know whether other parasites have a similar strategy to the cuckoo finch, and whether there is any way hosts can fight back."

How weapons inspectors try to get to the truth

By Alison Gee BBC World Service

Working in Iraq after the 1991 war

 

 

A team of weapons inspectors will return to Damascus on Wednesday following Syria's pledge to give up its chemical arsenal. The last time they were in the country they were shot at as they tried to gather evidence. What does it take to be a weapons inspector?

Last month, Ake Sellstrom and his team of 20 weapons inspectors negotiated a ceasefire between the warring parties in Damascus and set off for Mou'adamiya, in the suburb of Ghouta, to check whether reports of a chemical weapon attack were true.

 

• Ake Sellstrom and Tim Trevan spoke to Newsday on the BBC World Service

 

But no sooner had they entered No Man's Land when the shooting began.

"We had quite a few sniper shots in the windows - the windows of the armoured vehicle almost collapsed," he says.
"We were warned by security people working with us that this normally happens, that snipers could put a bullet here and there just to mark that this is their area - they are in power."
Sellstrom's team changed into another armoured vehicle and eventually arrived at the site to gather evidence.

The UN team in Ghouta had just a few hours to gather samples and interviews

The episode illustrates the kind of determined mindset that Tim Trevan, a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, says is one of the main requirements for the job.

Stressful times in Syria

"On 26 August we went to the Syrian town of Mou'adamiya, in Western Ghouta, having negotiated a five-hour ceasefire with the government and the opposition. It had been completely isolated for nine months and as our cars drove in, crowds gathered round to sing songs and bless us.
"Before we went to the sites where chemical weapons had been used, the team put on their masks, suits, gloves and boots to protect them from toxic substances. The temperature was over 40C and they had to wear all this protective gear as well as bullet-proof clothing and helmets, so it was tough for them to work.
"Under stress a team could crack and go different ways but we became an even tighter team. It was quite an emotional experience and as head of the mission I was tired for some time afterwards."
Ake Sellstrom, weapons inspector

"You want people who... are very persistent. You definitely want a sort of terrier - the type of dog who won't let go of the bone," he says.

In Saddam Hussein's Iraq, officials would sometimes tell Trevan and his fellow inspectors blatant lies.
"What they were supposed to give us were called full, final and complete declarations, and on occasion we used to joke that what they were giving us were full, final and complete fairy tales," he says.
On one occasion a team of UN inspectors in Iraq had to camp outside the Ministry of Agriculture for three weeks before they were allowed into the building.
By then the documents they wanted to see had been spirited away, but the inspectors could see that furniture and filing cabinets had been moved, which gave further weight to their suspicions.
But a stubborn refusal to be hoodwinked, and an insistence on gaining access to the necessary sites, is only the beginning.
When inspectors are dealing with a country at war they need on their team a wide range of abilities, some of which have nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction.
Trevan reels off a long list of experts he would want on his team - a civil engineer to check whether the buildings he is entering are structurally safe, an explosive ordnance expert who can check for unexploded bombs and mines, as well as people who can look after his personal security.
Only once security is taken care of can you get down to the nitty-gritty of site inspection.
If inspectors are investigating a site where a chemical attack is thought to have taken place, samples need to be collected from bodies, the soil and the water supply. The evidence then needs to be meticulously recorded and stored to make sure its reliability cannot be questioned.

Ake Sellstrom and his team arrive at a military hospital in Damascus

Medical experts are required to record precise information from local doctors who have treated injured people. Knowledge of the effects of substances and how they are broken down in the body is crucial at this stage.
When an inspection team is investigating an entire chemical weapons programme, there will also be a chemical engineer and an industrial chemist who understand how to turn chemicals into weapons. They may also have to determine the real purpose of an industrial facility - whether it has been designed to produce large quantities of chemicals for a weapons programme.

Tim Trevan worked in Iraq in the early 1990s as part of a UN inspection team

Then you need someone who can identify the weapons used to deliver the chemicals, be they artillery shells, rockets, missile warheads or bombs.
But that's still not all. In Iraq, Trevan was faced with a game of what he calls "cheat and retreat".
"Iraqis made a declaration we didn't believe so we had to come up with evidence to prove that they were wrong and then they would give us a new story," he says.
In situations like this where trust is lost, Trevan says you need to study documents dating back decades. This requires a further set of skills.
"You need people who are experts in export documentation so that you can find the companies who were the suppliers and ask them what the country imported," he says.
When following the paper trail, it also helps to know whether a document supposedly from the 1970s really is 40 years old, or something knocked up yesterday.

Chemical attacks

• The modern use of chemical weapons began in WWI, when poisonous gas killed 100,000 people
• In 1925 the Geneva protocol banned the use of chemical and biological weapons
• Since WWI, chemical weapons have injured more than a million people
• In 1988 Saddam Hussein used mustard gas, sarin and tabun to kill 5,000 people in the Kurdish town of Halabja
• As well as death, chemical weapons can cause vomiting, convulsions, blurred vision,

This is where forensic experts come into play. "You have got to be able to ascertain whether the paper is of the age it's supposed to be and whether the ink is of the age it's supposed to be," says Trevan.

Investigators will usually conduct numerous interviews, so an inspection team would also need reliable translators along with people skilled in interrogation techniques and the psychology of body language.
For Trevan the small details can be the keys to the truth. In Iraq they would ask lots of questions about dates, colleagues and even the colour of the paint on the lab walls. "Very silly little details like that can get you to a stage where... you can prove that they are trying to tell a lie," he says.
When he looks at the impact the inspections had on himself and his colleagues, Tim Trevan says their work was not as traumatic as that done by military personnel.
But everyone was different afterwards, he says. "It does change things, yes. There is a psychological price."
Ake Sellstrom agrees and worries about the impact it may have on him as a husband and father.
"I use both my brain and my heart in my professional work but I think the danger is that you are exposed to situations that make you hard".
But he thinks the risks he took in Syria last time were worth it. "Before this we just had indicators that wouldn't stand scrutiny," he says. "We now have evidence that could stand in court, evidence that chemical weapons were used in Syria."

'Sugar gel' helps premature babies

Around the globe each year 15 million babies are born too soon

A dose of sugar given as a gel rubbed into the inside of the cheek is a cheap and effective way to protect premature babies against brain damage, say experts.

Dangerously low blood sugar affects about one in 10 babies born too early. Untreated, it can cause permanent harm.

Researchers from New Zealand tested the gel therapy in 242 babies under their care and, based on the results, say it should now be a first-line treatment.

Their work is published in The Lancet.
Sugar dose
Dextrose gel treatment costs just over £1 per baby and is simpler to administer than glucose via a drip, say Prof Jane Harding and her team at the University of Auckland.

 

“Start Quote

This is a cost effective treatment and could reduce admissions to intensive care services which are already working at high capacity levels”

End Quote Andy Cole Bliss

Current treatment typically involves extra feeding and repeated blood tests to measure blood sugar levels.

But many babies are admitted to intensive care and given intravenous glucose because their blood sugar remains low - a condition doctors call hypoglycaemia.

The study assessed whether treatment with dextrose gel was more effective than feeding alone at reversing hypoglycaemia.

Neil Marlow, from the Institute for Women's Health at University College London, said that although dextrose gel had fallen into disuse, these findings suggested it should be resurrected as a treatment.

We now had high-quality evidence that it was of value, he said.

Andy Cole, chief executive of premature baby charity Bliss, said: "This is a very interesting piece of new research and we always welcome anything that has the potential to improve outcomes for babies born premature or sick.

"This is a cost-effective treatment and could reduce admissions to intensive care services, which are already working at high capacity levels.

"While the early results of this research show benefits to babies born with low blood sugars, it is clear there is more research to be done to implement this treatment."

London’s stairway to heaven

 

 

(Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images)

Head to the Tate Modern in Southwark and you could find yourself lost in a dizzying maze of 15 interlocking wooden stairways. The gravity-defying stairs, located on the outside lawn, might lead to nowhere, but the impressive structure – a landmark project of the London Design Festival 2013 – is an architectural and engineering feat that is still worth climbing.

The interactive installation Endless Stair takes its inspiration from a drawing by Dutch graphic artist MC Escher. With a total length of 436m – four and a half times the height of Big Ben – the staircase is made from American tulipwood. Known for its excellent structural properties and impressive weight-to-strength ratio, the wood allows the seemingly free-standing installation to safely accommodate up to 93 people at a time.
Climb up and down the 187 steps (don't worry, there is a banister to hold); some lead to a dead end, others will take you on a confusing detour, while the tallest ones lead you so high you can see the city's skyline across the River Thames all the way to St Paul's Cathedral.
Endless Stair is open from Monday to Sunday, 9 am to dusk, until 10 October. 

Deadly earthquake strikes Pakistan's Balochistan

A powerful earthquake of 7.7 magnitude has killed at least 30 people in a remote area of south-west Pakistan, local officials say.

It struck at 16:29 local time (11:29 GMT) at a depth of 20km (13 miles), 66km north-east of Awaran in Balochistan province, the United States Geological Survey said.

It was felt as far away as Karachi, Hyderabad, and India's capital, Delhi.

Balochistan is Pakistan's largest but least populated province.

The province is prone to earthquakes, with at least 35 people killed in a 7.8-magnitude tremor that was centred in south-eastern Iran in April.
Mud houses
Pakistan's Dawn newspaper quoted Khairjan Baloch, an aide to Balochistan's chief minister, as confirming the deaths of 30 people.

Many of the casualties were from Labach, on the northern outskirts of Awaran town. There are reports of some people trapped under the rubble of collapsed houses.

Abdul Qadoos, deputy speaker of the Balochistan assembly, told Reuters news agency that at least 30% of houses in Awaran district had collapsed.

Houses are also reported to have caved in in the district of Khuzdar.

Officials in the regional capital, Quetta, said some areas may have suffered serious damage but the remoteness made early assessment impossible.

People in the region mostly live in mud houses as opposed to multi-story concrete structures, says the BBC's Shahzeb Jillani.

The few concrete buildings in the area mostly house government offices, he adds.

Pakistan's chief meteorologist Mohammad Riaz told reporters it was a major earthquake that could cause extensive damage.

"But it would depend on how dense the population is in the area around the epicentre," he said.

Light tremors were also said to have been felt in Karachi and Hyderabad, with reports of people rushing out of office buildings.

Nairobi attack: Kenya forces comb Westgate site

 

Kenyan troops continue attempts to secure Nairobi mall

 

Kenyan forces are securing the Nairobi shopping centre attacked by suspected al-Shabab militants, as the stand-off enters its fourth day.

A senior police source said early on Tuesday the operation was "over", however journalists at the scene have reported sporadic gunfire at the mall.

There has been no official confirmation the siege is over. Kenya's president is expected to make a statement shortly.

At least 65 people have been killed, including three soldiers.

The Kenyan Red Cross says 51 people are still missing, and the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse says mortuaries in the capital are expecting to receive more bodies.

Al-Shabab militia

• Name means "The Youth" in Arabic
• Controls large areas of Somalia
• Formed as a radical offshoot of the Union of Islamic Courts in 2006
• Include foreign jihadists
• Has launched cross-border raids into Kenya, Uganda
• Estimated to have 7,000 to 9,000 fighters
• Announced merger with al-Qaeda in 2012

There are reports that part of the roof at the Westgate shopping centre has collapsed, following a fierce blaze on Monday.

The Somali Islamist al-Shabab movement said it had carried out the attack in retaliation for Kenyan military operations in Somalia.

Somali Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon has said that those behind the attacks "must be held accountable."

Meanwhile, Kenya's foreign minister said "two or three" Americans and a British woman were among the attackers.

In an interview with the US TV programme PBS Newshour, Amina Mohamed said the Americans were 18 or 19 years old, of Somali or Arab origin, and lived "in Minnesota and one other place".

She said the Briton was a woman who had "done this many times before".

Ms Mohamed appeared to contradict earlier comments from Kenya's interior minister, who suggested that all the attackers were men - though some may have been dressed as women.

Ms Mohamed's remarks have fuelled media speculation about the possible involvement of Samantha Lewthwaite, the widow of one of the men who carried out attacks on London's transport system on 7 July 2005.

“Start Quote

Why are they doing this to such innocent people - those attackers are not only enemies to non-Muslims but to humanity”

End Quote Abdirizak Nur Ibrahim Kenyan Somali

• Fear of reprisals

British officials said they would not be drawn on the identity of the attackers while investigations continued.

Mosque leaders in Minnesota have condemned the violence, saying the attacks had nothing to do with Islam.
Unanswered questions
The Kenyan security forces are continuing to comb the shopping centre to flush out the last of the militants.

The interior ministry said security officials were in "mop-up operations" and that "we're very near the end", while the police said they were defusing explosives planted in the area.

The BBC understands from official sources that six of the attackers have been killed - three on Monday and three since midnight.

The government said there were 10 to 15 militants involved in Saturday's attack, and it is not yet clear how the rest are accounted for.

Al-Shabab has made counter-claims on social media that it is still in contact with fighters in the shopping mall, and they still have hostages.

The government has said it has no indication that there are any captives.

Officials said earlier that 10 people had been arrested in connection with the attack.

Al-Shabab say this picture, which circulated on social media on Monday, shows their fighters in the shopping centre

'Three heroes'
Militants stormed the Westgate centre on Saturday, throwing grenades and firing on shoppers and staff.

At least 18 foreigners are among the dead, including six Britons, as well as citizens from France, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, Peru, India, Ghana, South Africa and China.

The interior ministry said on Tuesday that three soldiers had succumbed to their injuries, and eight were still being treated. "We've lost three heroes," the ministry said on its Twitter account.

Valve: How going boss-free empowered the games-maker

                                                                                                                                                            Valve believes high-performance workers tend to self-improve without a need for managers

 

Welcome to Flatland.

Imagine a company where everyone is equal and managers don't exist. A place where employees sit where they want, choose what to work on and decide each other's pay. Then, once a year, everyone goes on holiday together.

You have just imagined Valve.

The video games developer caused a stir when a handbook detailing its unusual structure leaked onto the web last year. Now, in a rare interview, it discusses its inner-workings.

"We're a flat organisation, so I don't report to anybody and people don't report to me," explains DJ Powers, speaking to the BBC on the sidelines of Edinburgh's Turing Festival.

Valve's employees often continue working on a game, adding features, after its release

"We're free to choose to work on whatever we think is interesting.

"People ask you questions about what you are working on. And the response is not to get defensive but to have that conversation and make sure that we're all invested in each other."

Even the furniture in Valve is unusual.

While other firms have fixed layouts, the workstations at the Bellevue, Washington-based company are fitted with wheels.

"We move around a lot and we don't want it to take a lot of time to do that," says Mr Powers.

"We form into teams based on need to complete a feature or complete a game, and then we disperse into new teams.

"The ability to be able to pick up and move and be in another office in 20 minutes as opposed to a day-and-a-half is really attractive.

Valve's somewhat eccentric handbook includes a guide to how to move its desks

"I've moved my desk probably 10 times in three years.

"You just wheel it out of the office and into the freight elevator and go up to whichever floor you need."

Valve's games - which include the Half-Life, Portal, Dota and Left 4 Dead series - are famed for both their quality and high sales.

Its online store, Steam, helped popularise the idea of a digital marketplace years before Apple's App Store.

Now some suggest its new Steam operating system could disrupt the games console market.

One might think the firm's set-up is a recipe for its staff to career off to their own personal passion projects. So how do its complex products ever emerge?

"One of the ways that things get done at Valve is that a critical mass does form," explains Mr Powers.

"There are lots of ideas about what is cool to work on.

"But unless you can find like minded people to work with, you will struggle to get enough resources you need to get it done."

DJ Powers worked at Electronic Arts before jumping ship to join Valve

Traditional management consultants might shudder at the implications, but Prof Cliff Oswick from Cass Business school - who has studied other experiments in what he calls "non-leadership" - commends the model.

"This is the most extreme form I've seen of deliberately moving away from hierarchy," he says.

"What I like most about this is it privileges the idea of dialogue, the idea of collective engagement."

Gabe Newell wanted to create a company without bosses after working at Microsoft for 13 years

He adds that he believes the model works in this case because Valve attracts "elite" performers.

But Mr Powers suggests there's another reason for its success.

"It doesn't work because we have the 1% of the 1%, or however you put that. It works because it was the original philosophy.

"Gabe [Newell] and the crew that started Valve hired people with this in mind.

"That's how we got to a company working effectively for a long period of time under this structure - because it was designed from the beginning."

The firm's stack ranking system is another curiosity.

Staff working on the same project rank each others' technical skills, productivity, team-playing abilities and other contributions.

The information is then used to create an overall leader-board which then helps determine who gets paid what.

The sofas may be static but Valve's desks and chairs are designed to be moved

Although Valve's record suggests the system can work, Prof Oswick warns that it could go awry were the firm to face a financial setback.

"Peer-pressure is a fantastic way of organising a business," he says.

"And so long as everyone is well paid people don't mind being in the bottom earning quartile.

"But as soon as resources become more scarce, then competition increases, which creates conflicts, which creates tensions, which creates hierarchies, which creates concern about relative positioning."

It's something to bear in mind at a time Valve is expected to embark on a potentially costly foray into hardware.

Valve's first "company vacation" was to Mexico in 1998 when it had only 30 employees

In the meantime employees have an expenses-paid week-long holiday to look forward to.

The company regularly flies all 300-plus members of staff and their families to a tropical resort, most recently Hawaii.

The idea of spending free-time with workmates might sound like a nightmare to some, but Mr Powers says it is something that he and the others genuinely look forward to.

"We travel together once a year and it's fun," he says. "Valve's really a family atmosphere in a lot of ways and that gives us an opportunity for our [own] families to get know each other even better."

There are some caveats to Valve's model.

In a land of equals there's recognition that founder Gabe Newell still has most influence.

Or as the handbook puts it: "Of all the people at this company who aren't your boss, Gabe is the MOST not your boss, if you get what we're saying."

And at a firm which says picking who else to hire is its workers' most important task - it describes the activity as "more important than breathing" - there's an acknowledgement that many talented individuals will not fit in.

"The culture is a flat organisation without a lot of top-down direction," explains Mr Powers.

"That's not a comfortable situation for a lot of people."

Valve's handbook declares hiring is "the most important thing in the universe"

Then there's the fact that when a firm without bosses dismisses staff it attracts attention. A decision to let about two dozen workers go in February made headlines across the tech press.

Mr Powers would not discuss the event, but when the Verge news site interviewed two of the laid-off employees they appeared to still be on good terms with the company, revealing they had been allowed to retain the intellectual rights to the project they had been working on.

Many gamers wish Valve's employees would decide to release a new game in the Half-Life series

Other companies might blanche at such ideas - and Mr Powers acknowledges it would be a bad idea to retrofit Valve's model to existing businesses - but he indicates there are lessons for start-ups.

"I think the fact that we're not managed by people and we're not managing people and you're able to formulate your own ideas and work with whoever it is to come up with a project or feature - that's empowering," he says.

"It's a community of respect and the best idea wins no matter who it comes from, whether they've been at Valve for a year or founded Valve."

expats angst: Four expats reveal cultural surprises

 

Expat culture around the world

As businesses cross borders and markets become global, there are more opportunities for professionals to go abroad for work. Working in a different country comes with challenges—some of which are hard to prepare for.
Superficial symbols like a handshake, food, languages and basic etiquette are important to master when working abroad, but how we adapt to cultural conditioning beyond the expected norms goes back to how we were raised.
“As you continue to do business with people, you have to understand their world view,” said Sheida Hodge, a cross-cultural consultant in Seattle, Washington.
Even when everyone speaks the same language, challenges arise when the same word means different things in different cultures. For example, “a word like ‘catastrophe’ means a minor issue to the French, but to Germans and Americans, it’s a major issue,” Hodge said.
Some cultures put business first while others emphasise relationships, and each is distinct, said Priscila Montana, president and chief executive officer of cross-cultural management and training firm Cultural Awareness International in Dallas, Texas.
But in any culture, the willingness to learn and participate goes a long way.
BBC Capital spoke with expats living in Germany, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, the US, Singapore, Chile and Russia, and intercultural experts. Following are edited conversations with each.

A fatal flaw when choosing the right leader

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

I, like many people, have been thinking a lot about US President Barack Obama lately. Did we pick the right man? Do we ever pick the right man, or woman? And how can we know ahead of time whether we’ve got the right person to be our leader?
The puzzle is one that is faced not just in presidential politics, but by all companies — profit and non-profit alike — as well as volunteer organisations, NGO’s, hospitals, schools and governments. The person at the top can make all the difference in the world, for better or for worse.

 

Politicians and other leaders from virtually every corner of the globe inevitably disappoint. But the much bigger concern is the mindset of voters, board members, and nominating committees when selecting our leaders — and the uncomfortable realisation that we’re not very good at it.

What if we’re not that good at figuring out the most critical challenges and opportunities we want our leader to solve?

I’m not even talking about the myriad of mistakes we make in selecting talent when we hire, from preferring people who look and act like us to believing that we can size someone up from an interview (the data on this last point, by the way, shows we are astoundingly bad at that). The single biggest problem — the fatal flaw in choosing presidents, school board leaders, or football coaches — is that we believe we can predict the future rather than looking for a leader who can quickly adapt to whatever the unpredictable future holds.
Think about what stands as best practice for choosing leaders. You assess the challenges and opportunities your organisation or team faces, and then look for the one person who has the best array of skills to address those challenges and opportunities. And that’s considered state of the art.
But what if we’re not that good at figuring out the most critical challenges and opportunities we want our leader to solve? And even more, what if the issues of the day are eclipsed by new events? With the pace of change as intense as it is across industries and countries, how can we even believe we are able to identify the precise bundle of experiences, capabilities and personality needed to take on what tomorrow brings?
Yet we act as if that is exactly what we are able to do.
In long election cycles like in the United States, by the time a new president is sworn in, the entire mandate may have changed. Was President Obama elected because of his massive experience in addressing global financial breakdown? Of course not, but that dominated the first year of his administration, which coincided with the global financial crisis.
How about President George W Bush? He had been in office for less than eight months when September 11 happened. Did voters anticipate that type of challenge to the country when voting for him?
Certainly not. In fact, how could we? Even the most seasoned executive is vulnerable to this same fatal flaw. Reginald Jones was ready to retire as CEO of General Electric in 1981, when he decided to turn the reins over to Jack Welch. One of the things he said at the time was that after a period of technological change the economy, and hence, GE, was about to enter an era of stability and maturity. He didn’t have a sense of the coming onslaught from the Microsofts, Intels and Ciscos of the world, yet he was the CEO of one of the most powerful and resource-rich companies on the globe. He had access to the best advisors and experts that money could buy. And he got it wrong — utterly wrong.
If we can’t predict the future, then how can we figure out who’s got the right stuff to lead us into that future?
First, there is a body of knowledge and experience that is relevant for any top job. It’s like an entry ticket to the game; you can’t be considered if you haven’t at least paid some dues. Second, you need a demonstrated track record of accomplishment. Playing is not enough; you have to have some wins under your belt too.
Many organisations stop there, but you really have to go the third, final, step to increase the odds of identifying a great leader. You need to ensure that your would-be leader has the agility to adapt to new and unexpected circumstances. In the face of change, executives who stick to the same playbook that got them to the top is almost always a failing formula. The inability of senior executives to adapt and adjust is the real reason companies such as Blockbuster and Kodak went out of business — and the reason companies like Google and Amazon keep beating competitors to the punch, time and time again.
The need for agile leadership is a problem for executives in all organisations. And the more senior the position the more complex, the more ambiguous, the more important the challenges and the decisions a leader is faced with. It’s precisely for these types of challenges that there is a huge premium on adaptability.
When faced with a failed strategy, we want our leaders to come up with something very different. We want them to adapt, demonstrate flexibility and show they have the agility to be a great leader. And we want them to do it in real-time, all the time.
Which brings us back to President Obama. The big question is: has he shown himself to be an agile leader amid multiple crises such as Syria, superstorm Sandy and battles with Congress? The agility question is one that voters should have asked before 2008.
Great leaders must be adaptable. Consider the military’s special forces, those highly trained personnel assigned to the most dangerous and unconventional missions. These elite units, which date back to Roman times, select and train warriors for strength, maturity, motivation, and intelligence. Candidates who make it through to the end are incredibly capable, yet there is one characteristic that is make-or-break in the final analysis: the ability to adapt and adjust and think fresh, in real-time.
And that is the one capability all leaders must have

Apple sells 9 million of its new iPhone models

Apple says the iPhone 5S and 5C have had a record launch

Apple has sold nine million of its new iPhone models in three days.

The company said that sales of the iPhone 5S and 5C had beaten previous launches of new phones.

Apple said demand for the 5S had outstripped supply and Apple shares rose almost 6% on the news before falling back to trade 4% higher.

The 5S has a fingerprint sensor built into the phone's main button. The cheaper 5C comes with a plastic back in a choice of colours.

In a statement Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive said: "The demand for the new iPhones has been incredible, and while we've sold out of our initial supply of iPhone 5S, stores continue to receive new iPhone shipments regularly.

Apple Inc.

price	change	%
486.54	+ +19.13	+ +4.09

"We appreciate everyone's patience and are working hard to build enough new iPhones for everyone."

'Get into line'
Analysts said that while the sales were strong, Apple had made an effort to ensure that the opening weekend was a success.

"Apple was concerned about the public relations angle of a soft first weekend, so they took some steps to strengthen the numbers," telecom analyst Jeff Kagan said in an email.

"Traditionally users could pre-order devices. Not this year.

"This year anyone who wanted a new iPhone must get into line. That bolstered the lines and strengthened [the] opening weekend from a PR perspective. This upset users, but made for great numbers," he said.

In a notification to market regulators Apple said it expected sales in its fourth quarter to be at the higher end of its previous announced range of between $34bn and $37bn.

It also forecast that its gross profit margin would be near the high end of the previously provided range of 36-37%.

Global warming pause 'central' to IPCC climate report

 

The BBC's Victoria Gill explains why the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report really matters, in just 90 seconds

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is meeting in Sweden to thresh out a critical report on global warming.

Scientists will underline, with greater certainty than ever, the role of human activities in rising temperatures.

But many governments are demanding a clearer explanation of the slowdown in temperature increases since 1998.

One participant told BBC News that this pause will be a "central piece" of the summary.

Researchers from all over the world work with the IPCC to pore over thousands of peer-reviewed studies and produce a summary representing the current state of climate science.
“Start Quote

Governments are demanding a clear explanation of what are the possible causes of this factor”

End Quote Prof Arthur Petersen Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency

Its previous report in 2007 was instrumental in helping the panel share the Nobel Peace Prize that year.

A new Summary for Policymakers on the physical sciences, the first of three parts that make up a report to be released over the next 12 months, will be published in Stockholm on Friday.

It will focus on the science underlying changes in temperature in the atmosphere, the oceans and at the poles.

New estimates will be given for the scale of global warming and its impact on sea levels, glaciers and ice sheets.
Levels of certainty
In its last report in 2007, the IPCC stated that "warming of the climate system is unequivocal" and that "most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th Century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations" - in other words, humans burning fossil fuels.

• The onset of the current pause coincides with a spike in upper ocean heat uptake around 2002 (lower graph)
• It may have begun when energy trapped by greenhouse gases was buried below the surface of the ocean
• However, the continuation of the pause in global surface warming beyond 2004 coincides with a decline in upper ocean heat uptake
• Understanding the cause of this decline in upper ocean heat content is crucial for explaining the continuation of the pause in surface warming

In the latest draft summary, seen by the BBC, the level of scientific certainty has increased.

The panel states that it is 95% certain that the "human influence on climate caused more than half the observed increase in global average surface temperatures from 1951-2010."

But since 2007, there has been a growing focus on the fact that global average temperatures haven't gone above the level recorded in 1998.

This slowdown, or hiatus as the IPCC refers to it, has been leapt upon by climate sceptics to argue that the scientific belief that emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere increases the temperature of the planet, is wrong.

Scientists have attempted to explain the pause in a number of ways, with many arguing that the Earth has continued to warm but that the heat has gone into oceans.

The most recent report suggested that a periodic cooling of the Pacific ocean was counteracting the impact of the extra carbon in the atmosphere.

But there is no certainty and little agreement among scientists on the mechanisms involved.

And this week, when the scientists will go through their summary line by line with officials from 195 governments, the pause is likely to be the focus of heated debate.

Chairman of the IPCC Rajendra Pachauri celebrates the panel's share of the Nobel peace prize in 2007

Prof Arthur Petersen is the chief scientist at the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency and part of the Dutch delegation that will review the IPCC report.

"Governments are demanding a clear explanation of what are the possible causes of this factor," he told BBC News.

"I expect that this will be a central piece of the summary."

There are likely to be tough negotiations between the parties throughout the week, with governments having already submitted around 1,800 comments on the draft.

Any changes to the text will need to be approved by the scientists, who will want to make sure that they are consistent with the underlying reports. This could lead to some tense moments.

"I wouldn't say there is a reluctance of the authors to take up such an issue as the pause, but they want to do it in a proper way," said Prof Petersen.

"There will remain a tension between how much you can deliver based on the peer-reviewed science and what the governments would like to have."
Too sensitive
In the draft report, the panel agrees that "the rate of warming over the past 15 years (1998-2012) is smaller than the trend since 1951".

The effect of this slowdown means that the future temperature range predicted by the IPCC will be wider than in 2007, and with a lower starting point.

Many sceptical voices believe this is a recognition that the IPCC modelling process has been too sensitive to carbon dioxide, a claim given some credence by the text of the draft which states that some models have "too strong a response to increasing greenhouse gas forcing".

But Prof Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, who is a vice-chair of the IPCC, rejects this idea.

Climate change glossary

Select a term to learn more:

Adaptation

AdaptationAnnex I countriesAnnex II countriesAnthropogenic climate changeAosisAR4Atmospheric aerosolsBali action planBali roadmapBaseline for cutsBiofuelBlack carbonBoxer-Kerry billBusiness as usualCap and tradeCarbon capture and storage (CCS)Carbon dioxide (CO2)Carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalentCarbon footprintCarbon intensityCarbon leakageCarbon neutralCarbon offsettingCarbon sequestrationCarbon sinkCertified Emission Reduction (CER)Clean Coal TechnologyClean Development Mechanism (CDM)Climate changeCFCCO2Commitment periodCOP15Country in transitionDangerous climate changeDeforestationEmission Trading Scheme (ETS)EU Burden-sharing agreementFeedback loopFlexible mechanismFossil_fuelsG77Geological sequestrationGlobal average temperatureGlobal energy budgetGlobal dimmingGlobal warmingGlobal Warming Potential (GWP)Green Climate FundGreenhouse gases (GHGs)Greenhouse effectHockey stickIPCCJoint implementationKyoto ProtocolLDCsLULUCFMajor Economies Forum on Energy and ClimateMethaneMitigationMonitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV)Nairobi work programNatural greenhouse effectNon-annex I countriesOcean acidificationppm (350/450)Per-capita emissionsPre-industrial levels of carbon dioxideREDDRenewable energyStern reviewTechnology transferTipping pointTwenty-twenty-twenty (20-20-20)UNFCCCWaxman-Markey energy billWeather

Adaptation

Action that helps cope with the effects of climate change - for example construction of barriers to protect against rising sea levels, or conversion to crops capable of surviving high temperatures and drought.

Glossary in full

"To take that out of context, if that change is confirmed this week, and to present it as a big change in the opinion the IPCC has on climate sensitivity, is ridiculous," he said.

"Most climate scientists wouldn't say that the 15-year period is a good reason to question the overall quality of models."

There is a feeling among many scientists involved with the process that this report will be more complicated and cautious than in 2007.

In the wake of that year's report, a small number of embarrassing errors were detected in the underlying material. The organisation's reputation was also questioned in the Climategate rumpus.

"Overall, the message is, in that sense more conservative I expect, for this IPCC report compared to previous ones," said Prof Petersen.

"The language has become more complicated to understand, but it is more precise.

"It is a major feat that we have been able to produce such a document which is such an adequate assessment of the science. That being said, it is virtually unreadable!"