The trial of the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has resumed after a six-week break for a defence appeal over allowing more witnesses.

Ms Suu Kyi has been charged with breaking the terms of her house arrest after a US man eluded guards to visit her lakeside home in Rangoon.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was refused permission by Burma's military rulers to meet Ms Suu Kyi last week.

A guilty verdict and further detention are widely expected.

Security was tight around Insein prison in Rangoon, where Ms Suu Kyi has been held since May and where the trial is being conducted.

About 100 of her supporters gathered as close to the prison gates as the riot police would allow, the Associated Press news agency said

The US is moving toward leading the climate change debate, rather than lagging behind, according to President Obama's chief scientific advisor.

In his first international interview since taking the post, Dr John Holdren told the BBC that he wanted to take the politics out of scientific advice.

He also revealed that Nasa's plans to send an American back to the Moon by 2020 could be delayed.

It was important now, he said, to balance science spending priorities.

Dr Holdren's previous job was professor of environmental policy at Harvard University.

His appointment as President Obama's chief scientific advisor was a clear signal that, unlike his predecessor, the new President would embrace rather than dismiss the scientific evidence that the burning of fossil fuels was warming the planet and dangerously destabilising its climate.

Dr Holdren told BBC News that the new administration was making progress in persuading the American public and Congress that cutting carbon dioxide emissions was in the national interest.

He said he hoped to convince both the public and US policy-makers in time for the next round of negotiations for a new international carbon reduction treaty in Copenhagen in December.
"It would be advantageous for the United States to go to Copenhagen as a leader," he said.

"We should demonstrate that we are a country that has embraced a mandatory, economy-wide approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"I think we are on our way to becoming leaders, and it's about time."

The United States House of Representatives recently passed the Waxey-Markey Bill, setting an emissions reduction target and introducing a cap and trade scheme.

Dr Holdren was confident that that a similar bill would be passed by the US Senate in time for the Copenhagen summit meeting.

But he said that the US would not be in a position to meet the European Union demands to set a carbon reduction target of between 25 and 40% by 2020.

"I don't think the European Union's preferred number is achievable for the United States at this point," he said.

"If we hadn't wasted the past eight years then we probably could have achieved that target. But we did waste the last eight years and, as a consequence, it doesn't make a bit of sense for us to embrace a target that is not realistically within our reach".

In his inauguration speech, President Obama pledged to ensure that facts and evidence were never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology, as some scientists have alleged occurred, during the Bush Administration, on environmental issues.

Next week Dr Holdren will set out new regulations that he says will prevent scientific advice from being influenced by politics.

"We are not going to have public relations minders changing the testimonies of federal agencies on a basis that is (not) scientific.

"Unfortunately, under the last administration that was not the case."

Dr Holdren also said that pressing demands on public finances had made it important to review Nasa's plans to send an American to the Moon by 2020.

"The previous administration articulated a grand vision to go to the Moon, Mars and beyond, but they never produced a budget for achieving that vision.

"We live in a resource constrained world and we have to understand what our options are now," he said.

The results of a White House review by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norm Augustine on the lunar exploration plans are due out by the end of August.

But Dr Holdren told BBC News that the review may well conclude that the proposed mission should be delayed, because it would mean that resources would have to be diverted away from essential environmental monitoring projects.

"To focus all our resources to get to the Moon in a particular year - or to get to Mars by a particular year - would impair our ability to understand what's happening on our planet," he said.

"(That) would be a mistake."

One in three breast cancers detected by mammogram screening may actually be harmless, a study has suggested.

Data from five countries, including the UK, suggest some women may have had unnecessary treatment for cancers that were unlikely to kill them or spread.

As it is not possible to distinguish between lethal and harmless cancers, all are treated.

But advocates of screening insist it is a vital tool for early detection of cancerous cells.
Researchers from the Nordic Cochrane Centre in Denmark said their results showed cancer screening programmes could lead to "overdiagnosis".

Writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), they said: "Screening for cancer may lead to earlier detection of lethal cancers but also detects harmless ones that will not cause death or symptoms.

"The detection of such cancers, which would not have been identified clinically in someone's remaining lifetime, is called over-diagnosis and can only be harmful to those who experience it."

China ordered mosques not to open for Friday prayers in the western city of Urumqi, which has been hit by several days of ethnic violence.

Public notices were put on gates of mosques across the city, although at least one mosque did open for prayers at the request of worshippers.

Thousands of troops remain in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province, to try to maintain order.

Thousands of people are reportedly trying to leave the city.

An official at the main bus station told the AFP news agency some 10,000 people - both Han Chinese and Muslim Uighurs - had left via the station since the weekend's violence, double the normal traffic.

Some 156 people have died and more than 1,000 injured in the violence that began on Sunday.

People with superior language skills early in life may be less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease decades later, research suggests.

A team from Johns Hopkins University studied the brains of 38 Catholic nuns after death.

They found those with good language skills early in life were less likely to have memory problems - even if their brains showed signs of dementia damage.

The study appears online in the journal Neurology.
Dementia is linked to the formation of protein plaques and nerve cell tangles in the brain.

But scientists remain puzzled about why these signs of damage produce dementia symptoms in some people, but not others.

The researchers focused on nuns who were part of an ongoing clinical study.

They divided the women into those with memory problems and signs of dementia damage in the brain, and those whose memory was unaffected regardless of whether or not they showed signs of dementia damage.

And they also analysed essays that 14 of the women wrote as they entered the convent in their late teens or early 20s, assessing them for complexity of language and grammar.

The study showed that language scores were 20% higher in women without memory problems than those with signs of a malfunctioning memory.

The grammar score did not show any difference between the two groups.

Lead researcher Dr Juan Troncoso said: "Despite the small number of participants in this portion of the study, the finding is a fascinating one.

"Our results show that an intellectual ability test in the early 20s may predict the likelihood of remaining cognitively normal five or six decades later, even in the presence of a large amount of Alzheimer's disease pathology."

Leaders of the G8 leading industrial countries have agreed to try to limit global warming to just 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels by 2050.

The summit, in the Italian city of L'Aquila, also set tough new targets for carbon emissions considered necessary to achieve the goal.

Developed nations are to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, to allow a global 50% reduction by the same date.

Analysts say there is no indication of how the targets, or costs, will be met.

Developed nations have been criticised for ducking interim goals, and difficult talks still lie ahead as negotiators try to firm up the ambitious goals, correspondents say.
Also, the cut in carbon emissions is only a target and will need the co-operation of rapidly industrialising such as China and India.

BBC economics correspondent Andrew Walker adds that the baseline for the cuts could be later than 1990.

That could allow some countries more modest cuts, as emissions in most rose after that date.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was confident non-G8 countries would back the commitments when climate change was discussed on Thursday.

Mr Brown said the G8 deal paved the way for a global agreement at the UN conference in Copenhagen in December.

"I hope tomorrow when we meet other countries we'll follow that through and this is a very significant development, the first time it's ever been done," he said.

Security summit

The summit agenda also includes the global economic downturn, food security, terrorism, and nuclear proliferation.

On Wednesday, the G8 leaders issued a statement reaffirming that they were "deeply concerned" by Iran's nuclear programme.

They also condemned North Korea's recent nuclear test and missile launches.
US President Barack Obama announced he would call a summit on nuclear security in Washington next March.

The G8 - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, UK and the US - are joined at the summit by leaders or representatives from the G5 group of emerging economies - Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.

Chinese president Hu Jintao flew back to Beijing amid continuing unrest in the western region of Xinjiang.

On the global economy, an official statement noted "some signs of stabilisation" but that the outlook remained uncertain, with "significant risks".

"We will take, individually and collectively, the necessary steps to return the global economy to a strong, stable and sustainable growth path," the statement said.

Mr Brown said G8 leaders recognised that the path out of recession was not yet secure, citing the recent rise in oil prices to $75 a barrel and fears of rising unemployment.

Earthquake zone

The area where the three-day summit is being held is still suffering aftershocks from the April quake and an evacuation plan is in place in case a serious tremor should hit.

African leaders will join the summit on Friday to push for a new initiative to fund farming in the developing world and tackle global hunger.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi moved the summit from Sardinia to L'Aquila to show solidarity with the victims of April's earthquake.

He took Mrs Merkel on a tour of Onna, a village almost flattened by the quake, and later Mr Obama was given a tour of L'Aquila to survey the damage.

On Wednesday, dozens of protesters occupied four coal power plants in different regions of Italy, demanding tougher measures in fighting climate change, Greenpeace said.

In Rome on Tuesday police said they had arrested 36 people after masked protesters blocked roads, threw objects and set fire to tyres.

The BBC's Bridget Kendall in L'Aquila says the big question hovering over the summit is whether the whole concept of G8 has been outdated and if a bigger gathering - a G20 - is needed to tackle today's problems.

Efforts by those trying to sell tickets they won to the Michael Jackson memorial service are being thwarted.

Hours after lottery winners collected their passes, postings went up on Craigslist and eBay offering tickets to the highest bidder.

Some were offered for as much as $25,000 (£15,450) before being pulled or flagged by users.

"eBay will not allow Michael Jackson memorial service tickets to be listed on the site," eBay told the BBC.

"When found, eBay will remove them immediately. We believe it is inappropriate to allow the sale of tickets for the Michael Jackson memorial service," the e-mail concluded.

Some fans were so outraged by those cashing in on an event honouring the King of Pop that they bid up tickets to absurd sums like $100m (£62m) on eBay.

On Craigslist, similar advertisements were soon flagged by users for removal.

"Users very quickly flag off ads that are inappropriate, look fishy, or are miscategorised, and that is what we are seeing happening with regards to Michael Jackson," Craigslist spokesperson Susan MacTavish Best told BBC News.

"This is an example of community response in action," she said.

The majority of postings that remain on the site's Los Angeles page are ones from fans who did not win tickets in the lottery as well as some that decried the actions of sellers trying to make a fast buck.

"Thank you for trying to make money off of an icon's death," wrote one irate Craigslist user.

Another person warned "Trying to sell your MJ tickets? YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SELL THEM! It's illegal (Called scalping and punishable by imprisonment.)"

"Beneath contempt"

It has been estimated that 1.6 million people applied to the online lottery for tickets to attend the service at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles.
The organisers AEG Live, which owns the Centre and had backed Jackson's London concerts, distributed 17,500 free tickets to the memorial via e-mail. The lucky ones had until 6pm last night to pick up their prized passes.

Each winner was given two tickets and while a special bracelet for the event was immediately placed on the ticketholders wrist, AEG spokesman Michael Roth confirmed they can give their second bracelet to anyone they like.

"Theoretically the second wristband can be sold," admitted Mr Roth.

"We are hopeful that they (the winners) have these vouchers because they are a fan and it's meaningful to them and they would also invite someone who it would also be very meaningful to them."

A Jackson family spokesman Ken Sunshine criticised those who would seek to make money out of the event.

"This is a memorial. Words can't describe how horrifying it is that people are ostensibly trying to do that. It's beneath contempt," said Mr Sunshine.
Streaming live

The tickets will admit 11,000 people to the Staples Centre plus 6,500 to the Nokia theatre overflow section next door.
With a star studded line up that is said to include Lionel Ritchie, Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Usher and Brooke Shields scores of TV stations plan to stream the event live over the airwaves and the internet.

The world's biggest social networking site Facebook is teaming up with CNN while rival MySpace is taking its feed from AEG Live.

The service will also be shown on five main US television networks and the BBC is planning to stream it live in the United Kingdom. Plans to show the event outside the UK are being considered.

It is believed the service, which is scheduled to begin at 10am Pacific coast time, could be the biggest event in the web's history.

Certainly it will be a major test for the internet which slowed on the day Michael Jackson's death was announced. At one point Google News was so inundated by queries it thought it was under attack.

There is a species of spider that builds models of itself, which it uses as decoys to distract predators.

The spider may be the first example of an animal building a life-size replica of its own body.

So believe the scientists who made the discovery, which is published in the journal Animal Behaviour.

The arachnid's behaviour also offers one explanation for why many spiders like to decorate their webs with strange-looking ornaments.

Many animals try to divert the attentions of predators by becoming masters of disguise.

Some try to avoid being seen altogether by using camouflage to blend in against a background, such as the peppered moth evolving motley wings that blend into tree bark, or stick insects that look like sticks.

Others evolve more conspicuous ornaments designed to distract a predator, such as butterflies that grow large eyespots or lizards that quickly move colourful tails, which they detach from their bodies if grabbed.

This latter strategy has puzzled biologists, because attracting predators in the first place is usually a bad idea.

One hypothesis is that animals which grow conspicuous ornaments benefit overall, because directing a predator to attack an expendable part of the body, such as the lizard's tail, outweighs the costs of attracting the attention of the predator in the first place.

A ground-breaking laser treatment could prevent millions of older people from going blind, experts believe.

The technique helps reverse the effects of age-related macular degeneration - the leading cause of blindness in over 60s in the western world.

Developed by pioneering eye expert Professor John Marshall of King's College London, the laser returns the back of the eye to its youthful state.

Improvements to sight were reported in early proof of concept trials.

AMD affects more than 200,000 people in the UK and attacks the central vision.
It develops when a membrane at the back of the eye becomes clogged with natural waste materials produced by the light-sensitive cells, which clouds vision.

In youthful eyes, enzymes clear away the debris, but as the ageing process sets in this system can fail.

The painless "short pulse" laser works by boosting the release of the enzymes to clean away the waste without damaging the cells that enable us to see

A simple supplement could help treat people with an impulse disorder that manifests in hair-tearing, say experts.

Trichotillomania suffers are blighted by uncontrollable urges to pluck the hair of the scalp and even eyebrows and lashes, often to the point of baldness.

Although seen as a behavioural and psychological problem, scientists are hopeful that the problem could be solved with an amino acid pill.

Archives of General Psychiatry reports promising early trial findings.

A group of 50 people with trichotillomania were asked to take part in a 12-week trial of the pill containing the amino acid N-acetylcysteine.
The same supplement has shown promise for treating people with compulsive disorders and is thought to work on the glutamate system, the largest nerve signal transmission system in the human brain.

Indeed, some studies suggest that abnormalities in the natural brain chemicals serotonin and dopamine may play a role in trichotillomania, although genes may also be involved.

In the trial, half of the volunteers were given the treatment and the other half a dummy pill.

After 12 weeks, patients taking the active medication had significantly greater reductions in hair-pulling symptoms than those taking placebo.

Overall, 56% of patients were considered to be "much or very much improved" with N-acetylcysteine use compared with 16% taking placebo.

The private gene testing industry must be more tightly regulated, peers say.

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee said a code of conduct was needed to stop bogus claims being made.

The report also said the tests, which predict the risk of disease later in life, needed to be more thoroughly reviewed before being marketed.

But the unequal provision of services in the NHS was criticised as well. Experts welcomed the report.

The completion of the human genome map in 2000 has led to a boom in genetic research and services.

Until then, much of the focus was on single-gene disorders, such as Huntingdon's and cystic fibrosis.

But the breakthrough led to the possibility of new and better screening and treatment for a range of more complex disorders.
Health firms have already started to exploit the issue by offering genetic testing, which can give people an idea of the risk they face of getting a range of diseases from heart disease to Alzheimer's.

The committee said it was concerned that unproven claims were being made and that individuals were not being offered the proper support and counselling to understand and cope with the results.

It said a voluntary code should be introduced to improve standards - official regulators are powerless to act as many of the companies offering such tests are based outside the UK and sell their services over the internet.

The peers said the EU could also re-classify genetic testing from low to medium risk to reflect the psychological impact the results can have.
This would mean they would be subject to more through pre-market reviews.

It also said mainstream NHS staff outside specialist genetic departments needed more training to help them deal with the "increasing demands" being placed on them by people worried about test results.

But the committee also said there was unequal access to genetic services provided by the NHS.

Genetic testing and subsequent treatment is already available for a range of disorders, such as breast cancer, as well as to work out which drugs an individual responds best to.

The report said individual trusts needed more help to develop and set up specialist genetic services as the issue was only going to become more pressing in the future.

At least 12 militants have died in missiles fired by a suspected US drone in north-west Pakistan, intelligence officials and residents said.

The attack targeted a stronghold of Pakistan's Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan, near the Afghan border.

The missiles flattened a compound in the Makeen area, officials said.

There have been more than three dozen US strikes since last August, killing over 340 people, it is estimated.

Most strikes have taken place in the North and South Waziristan areas.

It is the second deadly strike in less than a week. At least 10 militants were killed after a suspected US airstrike on a Taliban target last Friday.

Critical

"Our initial reports from agents in the field say at least 12 to 14 Taliban have died in today's [Tuesday's] American missile attack," news agency Associated Press quoted an official as saying.

He said several militants were also wounded in the attack.

Pakistan has been publicly critical of drone attacks, arguing that they kill civilians and fuel support for the militants.

The US military does not routinely confirm drone attacks but the armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are believed to be the only forces capable of deploying drones in the region.

Recently the Americans carried out their deadliest drone strike here, with Pakistani officials and local residents saying at least 50 people were killed.

The strike brought renewed public calls from the government for the US drone attacks to stop.

In March, US President Barack Obama said his government would consult Pakistan on drone attacks.

Police in the US say they have shot dead a serial killer who had terrorised a town in South Carolina.

Patrick Tracy Burris, 41, was killed during an attempted burglary 30 miles (48km) from Gaffney, South Carolina.

Bullets in his gun reportedly matched those used in the murders, which saw five residents of Gaffney shot and killed within a few days of each other.

Police said Burris had a long criminal record, and had been released on parole in April after serving eight years.

A New Zealand company is seeking EU approval to market honeybee venom to help people with arthritis ease their pain.

Nelson Honey & Marketing says two teaspoons a day of its honey with added venom milked from honeybees has anti-inflammatory power to soothe joints.

The venom concept is not new - some clinics even offer up bee stings.

The UK's Food Standards Agency said it would be considering the application in the coming months.
The Manuka honey with added bee venom has been available in New Zealand for 13 years and its makers say although it does contain a venom, it has proved extremely safe.

It contains a blend of honey derived from the native New Zealand Manuka tree and dried venom harvested from the Apis mellifera honeybee using electrical milking machines that send impulses to stimulate worker bees to sting through a latex film onto a glass collector plate.

Anecdotal benefit

The Nectar Ease label advises consumers to start with a quarter of a teaspoon a day and increase this to one or two as required.

It also warns that people with allergies to honey or bee venom should seek medical advice prior to use, and that it should not be given to infants under 12 months of age.

Honey has long been hailed for its healing properties, but the Arthritis Research Campaign said it was sceptical about the beneficial properties of honeybee venom in the treatment of arthritis.

The charity's medical director Professor Alan Silman said: "We recently compiled a report on the effectiveness of complementary medicines in treating the common types of arthritis based on available scientific evidence and honeybee venom didn't feature, as no research has been done into this product.

"As a result, it's difficult to postulate the action of honeybee venom or how it purports to work, because any available evidence is entirely anecdotal."