From today's UK papers

The Times

Independent schools are snubbing the first exams of the new A-level curriculum, raising fears that a two-tier system is opening up across sixth forms.

Vitali Valstev, a scientist from Moscow, claims to have developed the first artificial brain with the intellectual ability to compete with human beings.

The Independent

Government euphoria over attendances at national museums and galleries has been undermined by figures from Resource, the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries.

The Guardian

Oil giant Exxon Mobil, the world's most profitable company, is looking to reposition existing knowledge on global warming from fact to theory.

The 4,000-year-old timbers of the Seahenge circle at Holme-next-the-Sea in Norfolk are in danger of turning into "a tankful of sludge" while academic argument rages about the eventual fate of the unique monument.

The Daily Mail

The scientist James Watson has sparked a furore by calling for the law to be changed to allow the creation of genetically modified babies.

The Financial Times

HSBC has awarded Thomas Telford School, England's leading state comprehensive, an £800,000 contract to devise an online mathematics course that will help address the shortage of specialist teachers.

Miscellany

The National Union of Teachers' conference yesterday endorsed a tougher stance over pupil exclusion by threatening strike action to protect staff from violent and disruptive children. ( Guardian, Independent )

The image of Britain as a nation of wage slaves and workaholics who never have time for their families is a myth, the Institute of Directors said yesterday. ( Times, Daily Mail )

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