Today's news

Golden brooch makes Oxford women blue
Women are finally equals in the Oxford University sports scene. Well, sort of. For years men who have received an Oxford Blue for sporting prowess have been allowed to wear a blue blazer. Now after lobbying by feminist groups the university has conceded that women have a right to display their athletic success. With a finer cut of blazer? A blue sari? A scarf? No, what women want is jewellery, dons decided, and had a golden brooch made... with not a speck of blue on it.
( Times )

Dalai Lama's giggle wins over Liverpool
The Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, visited Liverpool yesterday to deliver a lecture and collect a fellowship from John Moores University. He expressed his thanks for his honour through an interpreter and said he saw Liverpool as a city where people of different Christian faiths lived happily in harmony. "So no need for lecture," he said in English, and chuckled again. He apologised for his broken English: "Sometimes in front of English people, I am a little shy." (Giggle). "But I don't care."
( Guardian, Times )

Hunt on for top student journalists
The race is on to find the best student publications and journalists of 2004. The National Union of Students, backed by the Daily Mirror , today launches the 57th Student Journalism Awards. Application forms can be downloaded from www.nusonline.co.uk/mediaawards . The closing date for entries is July 30.
( Daily Mirror )

Royal Navy calls 'ghostbusters' to 18th-century base
A team of 20 "ghostbusters" from the Society of Metaphysicians and Brunel University is due to begin an investigation today at a Royal Navy base after decades of reports of paranormal activity. The team includes mediums, psychics, historical researchers and sceptics. Equipped with night-vision cameras, sound recorders, dowsing rods, laser thermometers and detector sensors, the team will spend tonight and tomorrow night searching for evidence at the Devonport Naval Base in Plymouth, Devon.
( Daily Telegraph )

HRT benefits 'outweigh disadvantages'
Hormone replacement therapy must not be rejected as an option for menopausal women because of the slight risks revealed by recent research, a major review of the evidence for the leading journal Science has concluded.
( Times, Daily Telegraph )

Long flights raise risk of strokes, doctors warn
Thousands of long-haul airline passengers could be at risk of a stroke because of cramped seating conditions, doctors at Ealing Hospital have warned. The problem caused by restriction of movement - particularly in economy class - is already being blamed for deep vein thrombosis, which has caused a number of deaths. The doctors' findings will be published this week in the European Journal of Vascular Surgery .
( Daily Telegraph )

Researchers probe mammoth stars
Astronomers have begun studying the two heaviest stars yet found. Each giant is more than 80 times the mass of our sun, and the pair orbit around each other every 3.7 days. Situated about 20,000 light years from Earth, the stars are very close together, shooting hot stellar winds towards one another through space. The scientists believe they could reveal interesting insights into how such massive systems behave, uncovering new information on how the universe was formed.
(Financial Times )