Nerves transmit electrical messages but communicate with each other via neurotransmitters, chemicals that activate neighbouring cells. Parkinson's, for instance, is caused by a lack of the neurotransmitter dopamine - or the cellular receptors that respond to it. The artificial cell is made from an electricity conducting plastic and can deliver different kinds of neurotransmitter. Only cells sensitive to a specific neurotransmitter are activated.

In contrast, current methods of stimulating nerve cells electrically are liable to activate all cells in the target area, causing undesired effects. Cochlea implants use electrical stimulation to restore hearing. The Swedish scientists demonstrated the "delivery electrode" by using it to control hearing in the brains of guinea pigs.

Chief researcher Professor Agneta Richter-Dahlfors, from the Karolinska Institute, said: "The ability to deliver exact doses of neurotransmitters opens completely new possibilities for correcting the signalling systems that are faulty in a number of neurological diseases."

The sites of the presidential Blue House, the Defense Ministry, the National Assembly, Shinhan Bank, Korea Exchange Bank and top internet portal Naver went down or had access problems since late Tuesday, said Ahn Jeong-eun, a spokeswoman at Korea Information Security Agency.

They appeared to be linked to the knockout of service of websites of several government agencies in the United States, though investigators are still unsure who was behind the attacks, Ahn said. An initial investigation found that MANY PERSONAL COMPUTERS WERE INFECTED WITH A VIRUS PROGRAM ordering them to visit major official websites in South Korea and the US at the same time, Korea Information Security Agency official Shin Hwa-su said.

The US sites were hit by a widespread and unusually resilient computer attack that began July 4, The Associated Press has learned. In the United States, the Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and Transportation Department websites were all down at varying points over the holiday weekend and into this week, according to officials inside and outside the government.

Some of the South Korea sites remained unstable or inaccessible on Wednesday morning. Ahn said there were no immediate reports of financial damage or leaking of confidential national information. THE ALLEGED ATTACKS APPEARED AIMED ONLY AT PARALYZING WEBSITES, she said.

The Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and Transportation Department websites were all down at varying points over the holiday weekend and into this week, according to officials inside and outside the government. Some of the sites were still experiencing problems Tuesday evening.

Federal government officials refused to publicly discuss any details of the cyber attack, and would only generally acknowledge that it occurred. It was not clear whether other government sites also were attacked. Others familiar with the outage, which is called a denial of service attack, said that the fact that the government websites were still being affected three days after it began signaled an unusually lengthy and sophisticated attack. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.

The Homeland Security Department confirmed that officials had received reports of "malicious web activity" and they were investigating the matter, but had no further comment. Two government officials acknowledged that the Treasury and Secret Service sites were brought down, and said the agencies were working with their internet service provider to resolve the problem.

Ben Rushlo, director of internet technologies at Keynote Systems, called it a "massive outage" and said problems with the Transportation Department site began Saturday and continued until Monday, while the FTC site was down Sunday and Monday.

A BBC correspondent in Urumqi says the security forces are now mounting a show of force after fresh clashes on Tuesday between MUSLIM UIGHURS and Han Chinese. More than 1,400 people have been arrested over Sunday's violence. President Hu was expected to join G8 talks taking place in Rome on Thursday. Instead he is flying home from an airport in Pisa, leaving officials to represent China at the G8 summit. A state visit to Portugal has also been cancelled, China's official news agency Xinhua said.

The BBC's Quentin Sommerville, in Urumqi, notes that Mr Hu is a former party leader of neighbouring Tibet, where riots also broke out last year. Given that unrest and the latest unrest in Xinjiang, promises by Mr Hu's government to guarantee ethnic harmony and stability in western China increasingly lack credibility, our correspondent says. There was a significant increase in the number of troops deployed on the streets of Urumqi when the curfew ended on Wednesday morning, many standing to attention with bayonets fixed.

Officials say 156 people - mostly Han Chinese - died in Sunday's violence. Uighur groups say many more have died, claiming 90% of the dead were Uighurs. One official described Sunday's unrest as the "deadliest riot since New China was founded in 1949".

Writing in the journal Stem Cells and Development, the Newcastle team say it will be at least five years before the technique is perfected. They began with stem cell lines derived from human embryos donated following IVF treatment. The stem cells had been removed when the embryo was a few days old and were stored in tanks of liquid nitrogen.

The stem cells were brought to body temperature and put in a chemical mixture to encourage them to grow. They were "tagged" with a genetic marker which enabled the scientists to identify and separate so-called "germline" stem cells from which eggs and sperm are developed. The male, XY stem cells underwent the crucial process of "meiosis" - halving the number of chromosomes. The process of creating and developing the sperm took four to six weeks.

This research also raises ethical issues. Josephine Quintavalle from Comment on Reproductive Ethics (Corethics) said: "This is an example of immoral madness. Perfectly viable human embryos have been destroyed in order to create sperm over which there will be huge questions of their healthiness and viability. IT'S TAKING ONE LIFE IN ORDER TO PERHAPS CREATE ANOTHER. I'm very much in favour of curing infertility but I don't think you can do whatever you like."

"THE FEDERAL RESERVE WILL CREATE AND DISBURSE TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN RESPONSE TO OUR CURRENT FINANCIAL CRISIS," DeMint said. "Americans across the nation, regardless of their opinion on the bailout, want to know where the money has gone. Allowing the Fed to operate our nation's monetary system in almost complete secrecy leads to abuse, inflation and a lower quality of life," he said, according to Retuers.

DeMint also has said he supports a bill that now is pending in the US House that would call for such an audit. WND has reported the plan, sponsored by US Representative Ron Paul(Republican/Texas), already has collected co-sponsorship from a majority of the members.

Paul long has opposed the power held by the Federal Reserve and its ability to manipulate the nation's economy. He has launched multiple proposals to get rid of the private banking powerhouse, without significant support. But in light of the current economic downturn – the government takeover of the banking industry, the government's demands for various auto industry bankruptcies, the government's appointment of a "pay czar" – change apparently is coming.

"To understand how unwise it is to have the Federal Reserve, one must first understand the magnitude of the privileges they have," Paul wrote in a recent Straight Talk commentary. "THEY HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE POWER TO CREATE MONEY, BY THE TRILLIONS, AND TO GIVE IT TO THEIR FRIENDS, UNDER ANY TERMS THEY WISH, WITH LITTLE OR NO MEANINGFUL OVERSIGHT OR ACCOUNTABILITY."

In addition, some marks had been totted up wrongly. "There are lots of errors," said Rachel Ross, headteacher of Woolton Hill junior School in Newbury - who is reviewing the marks awarded for her pupils' papers. "We feel somebody has rushed with the marking and didn't apply the marking scheme as well as they could have done."

Her claims came as the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, the national curriculum watchdog, revealed that this year's test results for 11-year-olds had been delivered on time - following last year's fiasco when thousands were delayed for months. "The time constraints are putting these people under a lot of pressure and very tight timescales... It's very frustrating."

If the strips are not deactivated at the checkout tills then an alarm is set off. The store in Brockworth, Gloucester, has acted because of A SPIKE IN THEFTS FOLLOWING THE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN. A Tesco spokesman did not say what rise in shoplifting there had been at the store, but said: "We have a number of security measures that we enforce in our stores across the UK. The decision to use security tags is always made by the manager of the store and tags are used on various items such as bottles of spirits, all at the manager's discretion."

Godfrey Browning, Brockworth parish councillor, said: "Anything to discourage shoplifters is a good thing, and this is something I would certainly encourage. MEAT AND CHEESE IS GETTING VERY EXPENSIVE NOW, so this could be seen as necessary." The Retail Food Consortium added that electronic tags could soon be put on all supermarket food. "WE EXPECT CRIME TO GO UP DURING THE RECESSION," A SPOKESMAN SAID. "SHOPS WILL LOOK AT THIS AND STEP UP SECURITY."

Television chef Delia Smith helpfully included tips on boiling an egg in one of her best-selling recipe books after learning that many people lacked the required knowledge. However, it seems that many of us still cannot get to grips with it, and now the Happy Egg Company has decided to fill the gap in the market.

It has struck deals with supermarkets Waitrose and Asda, convenience store chain One Stop and home delivery firm Ocado to sell the product. The eggs are available in packs of two or four and have even had the shell removed for those who find peeling an egg too taxing. The two-egg pack has a recommended selling price of 89p – nearly 45p an egg – or £1.49 for four.

That compares to the cheapest pack of six raw eggs costing less than 90p in a typical supermarket. The Happy Egg Company claims its hard-boiled eggs are "cooked to perfection" and ideal for picnics or packed lunches.

Delinquencies on the value of all card debt soared to a record 6.60 percent from 5.52 percent in the fourth quarter as more cardholders relied on plastic to meet day-to-day expenses, the American Bankers Association said. Late payments on home equity loans rose to 3.52 percent from 3.03 percent, and on home equity lines of credit climbed to 1.89 percent from 1.46 percent.

A broader gauge showing late payments on eight categories of loans rose for a fourth straight quarter to a new record, edging up to 3.23 percent from 3.22 percent. That rate actually understates consumer pain because it excludes credit cards. The ABA tracks loan payments that are at least 30 days late.

"THE BIGGEST DRIVER IS JOB LOSSES," ABA Chief Economist James Chessen said in an interview. "When people lose their jobs or work fewer hours, it makes it that much harder to meet their obligations. Unfortunately, we're going to see higher job losses in the next year, and I EXPECT ELEVATED DELINQUENCIES."

THE POPE MADE HIS CALL FOR A RE-THINK OF THE WAY THE WORLD ECONOMY WAS RUN in a new encyclical which touched on a number of social issues but whose main connecting thread was how the current crisis has affected both rich and poor nations.

Parts of the encyclical, titled "Charity in Truth," seemed bound to upset free marketers because of its underlying rejection of unbridled capitalism and unregulated market forces, which he said had led to "thoroughly destructive" abuse of the system and "grave deviations and failures."

An encyclical is the highest form of papal writing and gives the clearest indication to the world's 1.1 billion Catholics - and to non-Catholics - of what the pope and the Vatican think about specific social and moral issues. The pope said every economic decision had a moral consequence and called for "FORMS OF REDISTRIBUTION" OF WEALTH overseen by governments to help those most affected by crises.

"The pursuit of power is no longer a zero-sum game," Obama said, speaking in the Russian capital to graduates of the New Economic School but also hoping to reach the whole nation. "Progress must be shared." Obama used his speech to further define his view of the United States' place in the world and, specifically, to argue that his country shares compelling interests with Russia.

"Let me be clear: America wants a strong, peaceful and prosperous Russia," he declared.

His upbeat comments at the New Economic School came on the second day of his summit in Russia, where polls show people are wary of the United States and taking a skeptical measure of Obama himself. Earlier Tuesday, Obama held private breakfast talks with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at Putin's country home outside Moscow. The atmosphere seemed cordial, and both voiced hope for improved relations between Washington and Moscow.

The former US vice-president accused politicians around the world of exploiting ignorance about the dangers of global warming. He said lack of awareness among voters allowed governments to avoid taking difficult decisions.

Speaking in Oxford at the Smith School World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, sponsored by The Times, Mr Gore said: "Winston Churchill aroused this nation in heroic fashion to save civilisation in World War II." He added: "We have everything we need except political will but political will is a renewable resource." Mr Gore admitted that it was difficult to persuade the public that the threat from climate change was as urgent as the threat during World War 2.

"The level of awareness and concern among populations has not crossed the threshhold where political leaders feel that they must change."

Wookey Hole staff say the role is straightforward: live in the cave, be a witch and do the things witches do. The advert for the post, placed in the local press as well as job centres, says applicants must be able to cackle and cannot be allergic to cats. The job has come up after the previous witch retired from the role.

"We are witchless as the moment so need to get the role filled as soon as possible," said Daniel Medley from the tourist destination. "Wookey Hole wants the appointee to go about her everyday business as a hag, so that people passing through the caves can get a sense of what the place was like in the Dark Ages. This was when an old woman lived in the caves with some goats and a dog, causing a variety of social ills, including crop failures and disease."

The £50,000-a-year salary is pro rata, and based on work done as needed, largely in the summer holidays, but also at Halloween and at Christmas. "Wookey Hole is advertising nationally and hopes to attract a strong field of candidates with the £50,000 serving as a major incentive," said the site.

All stations have reopened but Southern Network Rail services to and from Victoria station are still disrupted. There were a number of flood warnings at rivers and tributaries in south-east London including River Ravensbourne. Commuters were left stranded outside Victoria station and forced to find alternative routes out of the capital.