Today's news

Drink a day raises breast cancer risk
Every alcoholic drink a woman consumes increases her risk of breast cancer, the world's largest study of the link between alcohol, tobacco and breast cancer has found. The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, says that average alcohol consumption has risen in the past decade. The proportion of women aged 16-24 consuming more than three drinks a day has doubled, to 18 per cent. For each drink consumed daily, the study said, the risk increased by 6 per cent. The study also unexpectedly showed that smoking did not contribute to breast cancer, even though it is linked with 15 other types and is thought to be a cause of a third of all cancers.
(Independent, Guardian, Times, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Daily Mail)

Students in Iran defy call to end death protest
Thousands of Iranian students demonstrated for the fourth day running yesterday against a death sentence imposed on dissident academic, Hashem Aghajari, who has been sentenced to hang for questioning the rule of the mullahs. The protesters also called on the country's elected president, Mohammad Khatami, to resign rather than see his reforms emasculated by the hardline clerics who hold the power of veto on all new legislation.
(Independent, Times)

Police kill student during Kabul protest
Police opened fire on university students protesting against poor living conditions at a campus dormitory in Kabul, killing at least one and wounding about 30. The shooting began after about 1,500 students began throwing stones at police and passing cars around Kabul University on Monday night.
(Independent)

I still believe in free education
Ted Wragg professor of education at Exeter University, writes why he thinks top-up fees would make universities even more class ridden.
(Guardian)

Newton first edition stolen
Thieves posing as scholars stole a 1687 first edition of Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy from the National Library in St Petersburg.
(Guardian)

Catastrophe theorist dies
René Thom, the French mathematician best known as the inventor of catastrophe theory, has died aged 79.
(Daily Telegraph)