'Blame inequality, not bin Laden', says novelist
Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes told students and professors at the Universdad de Buenos Aires that injustice and social inequality, and not Osama bin Laden, the Taliban or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, were the real problems facing the world.
Trade talks trigger global protest
Lecturers’ unions are protesting about the potential effects of a new global trade round on UK higher education. The trade talks, being launched by the World Trade Organisation at a meeting in Qatar on Friday, could see education opened to full international competition under the provisions of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (Gats). An international day of action is being supported by Education International, the organisation of education unions worldwide.
Poverty and cold 'kills 1000s'
Cold homes kill thousands of vulnerable older people each winter, researchers warned today. Combined with a low income, poorly insulated homes cause thousands more unnecessary deaths each year in Britain than in other European countries, a study for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation carried out by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine concludes.
Students bailed for anthrax hoax
Three Stirling University students have appeared in court, charged with a biochemical hoax. Giles Hatfield Falkingham, Derek Walker and Alistair Thomson are accused of placing salt outside rooms in a hall of residence and claiming it was anthrax. They have been released on bail.
I'm not here for the beer
Men have a psychological need to go the pub and less than one in 10 said the reason they went was to drink, according to research out today. Just over 40 per cent of the men questioned for the survey by Leeds University psychologist Colin Gill said conversation was the overriding excuse for going to their local, followed by relaxation in second place, and the friendly atmosphere third.