London Metropolitan University students 'have until December'

Non-EU students at LMU are being helped to make other university arrangements, the UKBA says

Some 2,600 foreign students affected by the London Metropolitan University visa ban have been given until at least 1 December to find a new course.

The UK Border Agency says it will write to students after 1 October and "will ensure you have 60 days" to make a new student application or leave the UK.
On Thursday, the UKBA revoked LMU's licence to authorise non-EU visas. Ministers said it was failing to monitor student attendance.
LMU said it would challenge the claims.
'Systemic failings' In Home Office guidance issued to foreign students on Friday, the UKBA said: "You do not need to do anything immediately. We will write to you after 1 October.
"We will ensure that you have 60 days to make a new student application or to arrange to leave the UK. This 60 days will start from the date we write to you."
On Thursday, the government had said it wanted to assess how many students will be successfully reallocated to alternative institutions before the UKBA sent out the 60-day notices.
The UKBA said London Metropolitan University had "failed to address serious and systemic failings" identified six months ago.
It said many foreign students at the university had no right to be in the UK.
Immigration Minister Damian Green said London Metropolitan University had failed in three particular areas:

• More than a quarter of the 101 students sampled were studying at the university when they had no leave to remain in this country
• Some 20 of 50 checked files found "no proper evidence" that the students' mandatory English levels had been reached
• And some 142 of 250 (57%) sampled records had attendance monitoring issues, which meant it was impossible for the university to know whether students were turning up for classes or not.

Professor Malcolm Gillies, the university's vice chancellor, described the claims made against the institution as "not particularly cogent" and said it would be disputing them.
"I would go so far as to say that UKBA has been rewriting its own guidelines on this issue and this is something which should cause concern to all universities in the UK," he said.
Although there have been other suspensions, no other UK university has been fully stripped of its ability to recruit overseas students.

Vitamin B3 'helps kill superbugs'

                                          Antibiotic resistance is increasing

Vitamin B3 could be the new weapon in the fight against superbugs such as MRSA, researchers have suggested.

US experts found B3, also known as nicotinamide, boosts the ability of immune cells to kill Staphylococcusbacteria.

B3 increases the numbers and efficacy of neutrophils, white blood cells that can kill and eat harmful bugs.

The study, in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, could lead to a "major change in treatment", a UK expert said.

B3 was tested on Staphylococcal infections, such as the potentially fatal MRSA (Methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus).

Such infections are found in hospitals and nursing homes, but are also on the rise in prisons, the military and among athletes.

'Turn on'

The scientists used extremely high doses of B3 - far higher than that obtained from dietary sources - in their tests, carried out both on animals and on human blood.

And the researchers say there is as yet no evidence that dietary B3 or supplements could prevent or treat bacterial infections.

The researchers say B3 appears to be able to "turn on" certain antimicrobial genes, boosting the immune cells' killing power.

Prof Adrian Gombart, of Oregon State University's Linus Pauling Institute, who worked on the research, said: "This is potentially very significant, although we still need to do human studies.

"Antibiotics are wonder drugs, but they face increasing problems with resistance by various types of bacteria, especially Staphylococcus aureus.

"This could give us a new way to treat Staph infections that can be deadly, and might be used in combination with current antibiotics.

"It's a way to tap into the power of the innate immune system and stimulate it to provide a more powerful and natural immune response."

Prof Mark Enright, of the University of Bath, said: "Neutrophils are really the front line against infections in the blood and the use of nicotinamide seems safe at this dose to use in patients as it is already licensed for use.

"This could cause a major change in treatment for infections alongside conventional antibiotics to help bolster patients immune system.

"I would like to see in patient clinical trials but cannot see why this couldn't be used straight away in infected patients."

Mastercard's digital-wallet deal with Everything Everywhere

               Mastercard already powers contactless payments made with Barclaycards

Mastercard has secured a deal with the UK's biggest mobile telecoms operator to promote its digital wallet services.

The US-based payments company will co-develop services with Everything Everywhere (EE), which runs Orange and T-Mobile branded services.
Mastercard said the move would support the "accelerated adoption" of payments made with mobile devices thanks to EE's 27-million-strong customer base.
O2, Barclays, Visa and Paypal are among those developing rival services.
Mastercard said one of the first products would be a service in which users pre-pay money into an account before being able to spend it via handsets equipped with near-field communication (NFC) technology.
It added that more than 100,000 retailers in the country would be able to accept the contactless payments.
Over the course of a five-year partnership, the two firms said they planned to add other features, including in-store payments made via mobiles that would take funds straight from users' bank accounts, and person-to-person money transfers.
Mastercard said it also intended to take steps to help small-business owners accept payments. Many have been discouraged from fitting NFC equipment because of the costs involved.
The news builds on an existing relationship between the two companies. Mastercard provides the technology behind Orange's existing Quick Tap platform, which allows Barclaycard customers to make payments by tapping their card on an NFC-reader.

                 Barclays already offers money transfers via its Pingit smartphone app

Wallet wars
Many companies are competing for a slice of the digital-wallet market, betting that customers will prefer the convenience of not having to handle cash.
In the UK, Barclays has launched Pingit - a smartphone app that lets users transfer up to £750 a day to family, friends and small businesses.
The O2 Wallet is a rival app that allows "money messages" to be sent, and automatically fills in address and payment details for online purchases.
Later this year Visa will launch V.me, an app that allows user to store the details of several payment cards in their phone and then use them to make NFC payments.
In the US, Google already runs a similar service, Google Wallet, while Microsoft has unveiled plans for its own NFC-based Wallet Hub for Windows Phone handsets.
Ebay's PayPal unit has also teamed up with local payments firm Discover Financial Services to offer an alternative to NFC. It allows smartphone owners to make in-store purchases by typing in a telephone number and personal ID code at the cash register.
Benjamin Ensor, research director at tech specialists Forrester Research, said we were seeing the emergence of "digital-wallet wars" as telecoms, banking services and technology companies all sought to carve out a share of the nascent market. But he added they all faced the problem of low-level adoption.
"The key thing for any new payment system is finding a trigger to get people to use it in the first place," he told the BBC.
"The challenge for mobile payments for the past decade - and possibly the coming one - is that in theory you can use mobile payments for almost any payment you want, but there are very few that you can only do using mobile.
"People need to see clear benefits if they are going to want to overcome the barriers involved in learning and using a new system. So, deals like this bring more horses to the water, but the challenge is still getting them to drink."

Apple seeks to ban sale of eight Samsung phones in US

Apple Inc.

LAST UPDATED AT 27 AUG 2012, 21:00*CHART SHOWS LOCAL TIME

		price change % 675.68 + +12.46 + +1.88 Frost and Sullivan says investors are worried the verdict could undermine the Android technology used in smartphones

Apple has asked a court to ban eight Samsung mobile phones in the US.

The phones include the Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S2 AT&T model, Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, Galaxy S2 T-Mobile model, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G, Galaxy S Showcase, Droid Charge and Galaxy Prevail.

It comes in the wake of Apple's US court victory over its rival, which saw the South Korean company ordered to pay $1.05bn (£655m) for copying patents.

Apple shares rose 1.88% to $675.68 in Monday trading on Wall Street.

The company has asked the US District Court in San Jose, California, for a preliminary injunction on the Samsung products, while a permanent injunction is sought.

At the same time, Samsung has also asked the court to delete an injunction on its Galaxy Tab 10.1, after the jury in the recent court case found it did not infringe Apple's design patent for the iPad tablet.

Judge Lucy Koh had issued an injunction on the tablet on 26 June.

Earlier on Monday, Samsung sent a memo to staff hitting out at what it called the "abuse of patent law".

Shares in Samsung fell 7% in Seoul trading, their biggest one-day fall in almost four years.

On 24 August, a US court ruled that Samsung had infringed Apple patents for mobile devices in one of the most significant rulings in a global intellectual property battle.

Samsung said it would be appealing against the verdict.

"We initially proposed to negotiate with Apple instead of going to court, as they had been one of our most important customers," the company said its memo to staff.

"However, Apple pressed on with a lawsuit, and we have had little choice but to counter sue, so that we can protect our company."

It said that the US court's verdict contrasted "starkly" with decisions made in other countries, including the UK, the Netherlands and Germany.

"History has shown there has yet to be a company that has won the hearts and minds of consumers and achieved continuous growth, when its primary means to competition has been the outright abuse of patent law, not the pursuit of innovation," the memo said.

"We trust that the consumers and the market will side with those who prioritise innovation over litigation, and we will prove this beyond doubt."

Sales worries

Analysts said investors were worried that the ruling could see certain products taken off the market.

"An adjustment in the next few days is unavoidable as the damage amount was much bigger than market expectations, and there are further uncertainties, such as the possibility of a sales ban," said John Park, from Daishin Securities.

In a separate move, the giant chipmaker ASML said Samsung would be investing $975m in its research programme into next-generation chipmaking technology and in buying a 3% share in the company.

Intel Corp and TSMC have both recently signed similar investment deals into the co-investment programme, whose aim is to tie in ASML's customers and develop new technology designed to lead to cheaper products.

Jury ruling

A nine-member jury in San Jose, California ruled on 24 August that Samsung had infringed Apple patents for mobile devices.

It was the the most closely-watched of many similar patent disputes being contested in courts around the world between electronics manufacturers.

In recent weeks, a court in South Korea ruled that both Apple and Samsung had copied each other, while a British court dismissed claims by the American company that Samsung had infringed its copyrights.

INTERNET NEWS: 'Clot nets' help stroke recovery

INTERNET NEWS: 'Clot nets' help stroke recovery:                   Parts of the brain die when clots stop blood delivering oxygen Using small nets to extract blood clots from patients...

'Clot nets' help stroke recovery

                  Parts of the brain die when clots stop blood delivering oxygen

Using small nets to extract blood clots from patients' brains may be the future of stroke care, according to two studies.

Clots block blood vessels, starving parts of the brain of oxygen, which leads to symptoms such as paralysis and loss of speech.

Two studies, presented in the Lancet medical journal, suggest extracting clots with nets could improve recovery.

The Stroke Association said it was very excited by the treatment's potential.

There are already techniques for reopening blocked blood vessels in people's brains.

Some patients will be given "clot-busting" drugs, but this needs to be in the hours just after the stroke and is not suitable for everyone.

Clot extraction

Other techniques have been developed to extract the clot. Some procedures pass a tube up through the groin to the brain. There the wire passes through the clot, forming a coil on the far side and then pulling the clot out. However, this is far from routine practice.

The latest methods involve a tiny wire cage instead of a coil. This pushes the clot up against the walls of the artery and enmeshes the clot in the wires, allowing doctors to pull the clot back out of the groin.

Two similar devices were compared with the current coil methods. One trial of 113 patients showed 58% had good brain function after three months, compared with 33% of those treated with the coil method, as well as a lower death rate.

Another study in 178 patients showed almost double the chance of living independently after treatment.

One of the researchers involved, Prof Jeffrey Saver from the University of California, Los Angeles, told the BBC that these techniques would become more common, as they are more likely to clear clots than drugs.

"Clot-busting drugs only partially reopen 40% of large blocked arteries. These devices partially reopen 70-90% of large blocked arteries.

"Second, these devices can be used in patients in whom it is not safe to give 'clot busting' drugs, such as patients taking anticoagulant medications, patients who had recent surgery, and patients who are between 4.5 to eight hours after stroke onset."

In the long term he can see drugs being used as a first option and then clot removal if the drugs fail or cannot be used.

'Major steps forward'

Responding to the research, the Stoke Association's Dr Clare Walton said clot-busters did not work for all patients so new techniques could help many patients.

She added: "Clot retrieval devices have the potential to be used with more stroke patients and are better at removing blood clots than clot-busting drugs.

"We are very excited about this potential new treatment and look forward to further developments."

Dr Philip Gorelick, from Michigan State University, said the studies were "major steps forward in the successful treatment of acute ischaemic stroke, and pave the way for new treatment options".

The research was published to coincide with a European Society of Cardiology meeting in Munich.

Forensic test can predict hair and eye colour from DNA

The test can predict both hair and eye colour from samples left at a crime scene

Scientists have developed a forensic test that can predict both the hair and eye colour of a possible suspect using DNA left at a crime scene.

The team that developed the test says it could provide valuable leads in cases where perpetrators cannot be identified through DNA profiling.

The Hirisplex system could allow investigators to narrow down a large group of possible suspects.

Details appear in the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics.

Predicting phenotypes - outward traits such as hair colour or eye colour - from DNA information is an emerging field in forensics.

An important current approach, known as genetic profiling, involves comparing crime scene DNA with that from a suspect or with a profile stored in a database.

But this relies on the person either being among a pool of suspects identified by the police or having their profile in a DNA database.

Tools such as Hirisplex could be useful in those cases where the perpetrator is completely unknown to the authorities, said Prof Manfred Kayser, who led the study.

He said the test "includes the 24 currently best eye and hair colour predictive DNA markers. In its design we took care that the test can cope with the challenges of forensic DNA analysis such as low amounts of material."

Prof Kayser, from Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, added: "The test is very sensitive and produces complete results on even smaller DNA amounts than usually used for forensic DNA profiling."

He told BBC News that the journal article described everything needed to establish the test in a forensic lab, but that the team was also in touch with industry regarding their knowledge about hair and eye colour prediction.

The test system includes the six DNA markers previously used in a test for eye colour known as Irisplex, combining them with predictive markers for hair.

In the study, the authors used Hirisplex to predict hair colour phenotypes in a sample drawn from three European populations.

On average, their prediction accuracy was 69.5% for blonde hair, 78.5% for brown, 80% for red and 87.5% for black hair colour.

Analysis on worldwide DNA samples suggested the results were similar regardless of a person's geographic ancestry.

The team was also able to determine, with a prediction accuracy of about 86%, whether a brown-eyed, black haired person was of non-European versus European origin (excluding some nearby areas such as the Middle East).

The findings were also outlined at the sixth European Academy of Forensic Science conference in The Hague this week.