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.

When the parliamentary group of the Christian Social Union (CSU) - the Bavarian sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats - met in Berlin last Thursday, they had a hero to celebrate. "You have saved our honor," said CSU representative Hans-Peter Friedrich to his party colleague and friend Peter Gauweiler.

Gauweiler, a lawyer from Munich - and a political maverick who is the enfant terrible of the conservative group in the German parliament or Bundestag - was largely successful with the legal complaint he filed with the German Constitutional Court against the EU Lisbon Treaty. Now it's official: THE RATIFICATION BY THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF THE GERMAN PARLIAMENT - INCLUDING THE CSU - WAS NEGLIGENT.

In essence, the court ruled that by passing the so-called "accompanying law" to the Lisbon Treaty, which determines the rights of German parliament to participate in European legislation, the representatives had relinquished significant monitoring rights to Brussels. According to the judges, this unconstitutionally SUBJECTS THE PEOPLE THAT THEY REPRESENT TO THE WHIMS OF A BUREAUCRACY THAT LACKS SUFFICIENT DEMOCRATIC LEGITIMACY.

Since about half the planet's climate-warming emissions come from less than a billion of its people, it makes sense to follow these rich folks when setting national targets to cut carbon dioxide emissions, the authors wrote on Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

As it stands now, under the carbon-capping Kyoto Protocol, rich countries shoulder most of the burden for cutting the emissions that spur global warming, while developing countries - including fast-growing economies China and India - are not required to curb greenhouse pollution.

Rich countries, notably the United States, have said this gives developing countries an unfair economic advantage; China, India and other developing countries argue that developed countries have historically spewed more climate-warming gases, and developing countries need time to catch up.

They faced the grim choice of waiting up to three weeks for Jackson's brain to be returned to them or go ahead and bury him without it – which they have decided to do. Los Angeles Coroner's spokesman Craig Harvey confirmed that neuropathology tests will be carried out to see if it holds any clues to the exact cause of his death.

But the examination cannot begin until at least two weeks after the death when the brain has hardened sufficiently to slice it open. Jackson died from a cardiac arrest at his Beverly Hills mansion on June 25 after a suspected overdose of painkillers.

The letter, Caritas in Veritate, or Charity in Truth, is his third since Benedict XVI was made Pope in 2005. He began writing it two years ago but has had to amend it considerably. His initial thoughts on the ethical responsibilities for poverty, hunger, climate change, and the decline in the world economy were overtaken by events.

The Pope told a group of priests in Rome at the beginning of the year that he did not want to give simplistic answers to complex questions concerning the world economy. But he will single out human greed and selfishness as the root causes of the economic crisis. While the global financial system needs reform, the Pope has said, individuals must also realise that they have to make personal sacrifices in order to help the poor and move towards a more just division of the world's resources.

MANY OF THE POPE'S 19TH AND 20TH-CENTURY PREDECESSORS HAVE FROM TIME TO TIME ISSUED MORAL GUIDELINES ON SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC QUESTIONS IN THE FORM OF ENCYCLICAL LETTERS. The publication of Caritas in Veritate is taking place on the eve of the G8 meeting of world leaders at L'Aquila in Italy this week. On Friday Pope Benedict will have his first meeting with President Barack Obama at the Vatican, when the new US leader will have the opportunity of exchanging views with the Pope on the moral imperatives facing world leaders in 2009.