Nuclear subs collide in Atlantic

A Royal Navy nuclear submarine was involved in a collision with a French nuclear sub in the middle of the Atlantic, the MoD has confirmed.

HMS Vanguard and Le Triomphant were badly damaged in the crash in heavy seas earlier this month.

First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jonathon Band said the submarines came into contact at low speed and no injuries were reported.

Both the UK and France insisted nuclear security had not been compromised.

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou has met China's senior envoy to the island in the highest level contact since 1949.

The meeting was brought forward five hours to avoid continuing protests by Taiwanese pro-independence groups.

Mr Ma defended his agreements with Beijing, saying they did not damage Taiwan's sovereignty.

The Chinese envoy, Chen Yunlin, has signed economic agreements with Taiwan but has also been trapped in a hotel by Taiwan pro-independence protesters.

Mr Chen's meeting with Mr Ma at a government guest house lasted just five minutes and involved the exchange of gifts - a vase from Mr Ma and a large scroll painting of a horse from Mr Chen.

Increased rainfall, or something linked to it, may be connected to the development of autism, scientists say.

The theory is based on child health and weather records from three US states, but has been greeted cautiously by a UK research charity.

The US study found autism rates were higher among children whose states experienced higher rainfall in their first three years.

The work appears in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

The rising rate of autism - up, by some measures, from one in 2,500 to one in 150 - has been attributed mainly to improvements in the way doctors are able to recognise the disorder.

The thickness of Arctic sea ice "plummeted" last winter, thinning by as much as 49 centimetres (1.6ft) in some regions, satellite data has revealed.

A study by UK researchers showed that the ice thickness had been fairly constant for the previous five winters.

The team from University College London added that the results provided the first definitive proof that the overall volume of Arctic ice was decreasing.

The findings have been published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

"The ice thickness was fairly constant for the five winters before this, but it plummeted in the winter after the 2007 minimum," lead author Katharine Giles told BBC News.

One of Europe's flagship space projects looks as though it is going to proceed with the UK continuing to be a bit-part player, scientists and engineers fear.

The Kopernikus programme is dedicated to acquiring and collating satellite data on the health of the planet.

Although Britain says it recognises the project's high value, especially for monitoring the climate, it has so far declined to take a lead in the venture.

Industry and academia have called for a swift change in government policy.

Failure to adopt a more positive approach before a critical meeting of Europe's space ministers next month will put expertise and jobs in the UK at risk, they warn.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has warned of "dramatic consequences" if Washington and Baghdad do not agree a security deal on US forces in Iraq.

He said if there were no Status of Forces Agreement the US would have to "basically stop doing anything".

Iraq's cabinet is demanding changes to a draft deal already agreed with Washington that would allow US forces to stay in Iraq until 2011.

Mr Gates said the US had "great reluctance" to renegotiate.

"I don't think you slam the door shut, but I would say it's pretty far closed," he said.

"If the US economy catches a cold, Mexico catches pneumonia," the saying goes. Money sent from the US by Mexican workers there rank as the country's second largest source of foreign income. But that money has dropped 12%, the Central Bank says, due to a recession in the US construction industry, a heavy user of Mexican labour. Tighter border controls and a US crackdown on illegal immigration have also played a role.

Despite these concerns, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon is confident that the country will not suffer the ramifications of the credit crunch, and has proposed to spend US$4.4 billion next year (£2.5bn; 3.3bn euros) on infrastructure projects.

The labour secretary for the Mexico City government, Benito Miron Lince, has announced plans to support some 30,000 workers who are expected to return to the Mexican capital because of the slowdown in the US. Officials have stated that the current unemployment insurance program, unveiled last autumn, will be broadened. According to Mr Miron Lince, demand for unemployment benefits has rapidly increased during the last few months.

With the wave of migrants heading back, it is becoming increasingly evident that re-adjusting to a country that was once their home is not that simple.

After spending most of their lives in the US, Mexican families barely recognise relatives or their towns. Children in particular are often mocked and discriminated against by their teachers and fellow students when they pronounce their names in an American accent. Many are returning to the same grinding poverty that originally drove them out.

Controlling the level of a fatty acid in the brain could help treat Alzheimer's disease, an American study has suggested.

Tests on mice showed that reducing excess levels of the acid lessened animals' memory problems and behavioural changes.

Writing in Nature Neuroscience, the team said fatty acid levels could be controlled through diet or drugs.

A UK Alzheimer's expert called the work "robust and exciting".

There are currently 700,000 people living with dementia in the UK, but that number is forecast to double within a generation.

US defence chief Robert Gates is seeking support from politicians on a draft deal to extend the US mandate in Iraq, which expires later this year.

Details have not been released, but officials say it would see US troops withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.

Mr Gates is said to be briefing key members of Congress on the deal, although their approval is not needed.

But the draft does need approval on the Iraqi side, which correspondents say could prove difficult.

The current UN mandate for US-led coalition forces in Iraq expires on 31 December. About 144,000 of the 152,000 foreign troops deployed there are US military personnel.

European shares have opened sharply lower following dramatic falls in Asia that saw Tokyo's Nikkei index fall 11%.

Global falls have largely wiped out the gains earlier in the week, as fears of recession cancelled out any optimism from the banking rescue package.

London's FTSE 100 opened 5% lower while the Cac 40 in Paris was down 6%.

On Wednesday, New York's Dow Jones index saw its worst one-day percentage fall on Wednesday since October 1987, closing almost 8% down

Shares in Hong Kong shed 7.6%. Australian, South Korea and Indian indexes all fell by at least 4%.

 On the anniversary of the September 11th attacks, The World Tonight, had a special edition from Pakistan. Owen Bennett Jones presented the programme from Islamabad while Lyce Doucet reported from Afghanistan.

Seven years on from the attacks in New York and Washington, the key stronghold of groups linked to the Taleban and al-Qaeda is now the wild and remote mountain region straddling the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Many call this the new frontline in the battle between western forces, their Afghan and Pakistani allies, and armed Islamic militants.

But there is another way of looking at this region - it is the heartland of the Pashtuns - the tribal people who make up a large element of the population of both Afghanistan and Pakistan, but are resistant to the central authority of both states. The majority of the Taleban are Pashtuns and they have allied themselves to al-Qaeda.

In Afghanistan, American and Nato forces - with Afghan government troops - are involved in an increasingly fierce battle with the Taleban, while in Pakistan 120,000 Pakistani troops are engaged in large scale operations against Taleban fighters and their al-Qaeda allies.

These are the questions we hoped to address in the programme and ones we put to Afghan president Hamid Karzai and Pakistani Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi as well as the British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband.

Jury selection is under way at a court in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the trial of former US football star OJ Simpson.

Mr Simpson was arrested last September for allegedly robbing at gunpoint two sports memorabilia dealers in a hotel.

He faces 12 charges including assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and burglary. If found guilty he could face life in prison.

Mr Simpson, 61, and his co-defendant, Clarence Stewart, 54, have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Mr Simpson's legal team has said he was trying to retrieve stolen memorabilia that belonged to him from a Las Vegas hotel and has denied that any guns were involved.

 The British Antarctic Survey is looking for a plumber at Bird Island research station off South Georgia.

While there will be no call-out charge, frozen pipes and maintaining heating in temperatures of -20C will certainly keep the successful applicant busy.

The £22,340 salary may be low by UK standards, but accommodation is provided and living costs are next to nothing, the Survey says.

 US presidential rivals Barack Obama and John McCain have begun the final phase of their campaigns following their anointment by the party conventions.
Mr Obama, the Democratic candidate, seized on high unemployment figures to tell a rally that Republicans must be driven from the White House.

Republican John McCain promised to work to fix the economy.

Both candidates are focusing on key battleground states ahead of the presidential election in November.

There's been some reaction to reports about changes to the Money Programme, a long established and very effective part of the BBC's business offering.

Whilst I am not responsible for that particular programme, or the changes being made by BBC Current Affairs, I understand there's no intention to reduce the impact or volume of the Money Programme despite some of the reporting.

What is also true is that there has never been a higher level of commitment or dedication to business and economics coverage on BBC News. My department produces 11 hours of broadcast business output every single weekday across various BBC outlets and channels, as well as a constantly updated website for UK and global business news.

We have teams of business journalists based in the US, Asia, India and the Middle East who contribute to our domestic and international coverage. In October we are re-launching Working Lunch, our daily business and finance programme on BBC2, with a new format and extra audience interactivity. It's a project which we are incredibly excited about and which we know will meet a real desire from the audience to know more about the economy and what affects the pound in our pockets.

In addition, our team of specialists including Business Editor Robert Peston and Economics Editor Hugh Pym continue to provide exclusive stories and strong analysis. Robert's current series of 30 minute interviews with top CEO's called Leading Questions has been a real investment in serious business news for BBC News.