Ordnance Survey won't become a plc
The government has decided not to turn Ordnance Survey into a company, the House of Commons heard yesterday. Department of the regions under-secretary Tony McNulty said: "There is no clear evidence to support the view that Ordnance Survey would benefit from a change of status to a government-owned plc. Sustaining OS as a trading fund with some extended freedoms will enable it to continue to develop to the benefit of all who use its geographic data."
UK fertility clinic mix-ups common
Mix-ups and mistakes in fertility clinics across the UK are a regular occurrence, a leading scientist and consultant to London's Portland Hospital has said. Sammy Lee, writing in The Scotsman , claimed the recent case of a white woman giving birth to twins of a different ethnic origin was not an "isolated incident". He demanded better training for doctors working in IVF.
Wordsworthians congregate in Grasmere
Leading Wordsworth scholars will be in Grasmere this weekend for the start of the Wordsworth Summer Conference. Speakers this year will include Jonathan Wordsworth, chairman of the Wordsworth Trust, Michael Foot, former leader of the Labour party and a leading scholar of the Wordsworthian poetry critic Hazlitt.
Anthrax alert at Scott huts
Huts used by Scott of the Antarctic in 1912 have been placed off limits to researchers after Waikato University scientists found anthrax spores and brought some of them to New Zealand under quarantine. The huts, 1,500 km from the South Pole, have been made out of bounds to the few researchers working at the base.