Mitt Romney vows to restore America's promise

Mitt Romney: "I wish President Obama had succeeded, because I want America to succeed"

Mitt Romney has pledged "to restore the promise of America", as he accepted the 

Republican presidential nomination at the party's convention in Florida.

Mr Romney accused President Barack Obama of failing to deliver on his promises and presented his plan involving energy independence, cutting the budget deficit and creating jobs.

He also spoke of his Mormon faith.

The Obama campaign said Mr Romney had "no tangible ideas" and "would take our country backwards".

Mr Romney will challenge the Democratic president in November's election.

His speech was the climax of the three-day Republican convention, which correspondents saw as an attempt to show the human side of a candidate who is sometimes accused of being opaque and distant.

Family guy

Mr Romney began the most important speech of his political career by accepting the nomination that he was overwhelmingly awarded on Tuesday by thousands of delegates at the gala in Tampa.

It secured him the position that eluded him in his first presidential bid in 2008, when Arizona Senator John McCain became the Republican nominee.

"I wish President Obama had succeeded because I want America to succeed," Mr Romney said, in a speech that was watched by millions across the US.

Instead he told his audience: "You know there's something wrong with the kind of job he's done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him."

And he pledged to do things differently: "President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet. My promise... is to help you and your family."

The 65-year-old presidential nominee recounted details of his Mormon upbringing, with anecdotes about his family life and his parents' loving marriage.

Mr Romney talked about his own experiences as a father, apparently becoming emotional as he talked about the times when he and his wife Ann would wake up to find "a pile of kids asleep in our room".

Bo Xilai scandal: Gu Kailai jailed over Heywood murder

Gu Kailai and her aide, Zhang Xiaojun, did not contest the charges against them

The wife of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai has been given a suspended death sentence for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.

Gu Kailai did not contest charges at her one-day trial that she poisoned Mr Heywood in November 2011.

Suspended death sentences are usually commuted to life imprisonment in China.

Mr Bo, the former party chief in Chongqing, was once seen as a contender for a national leadership position in a top-level reshuffle later this year.

But he has not been seen in public since the investigation into Gu was announced.

Gu's aide, Zhang Xiaojun, was jailed for nine years for his part in the murder.

'Special respect'

The verdict in China's most high-profile trial for years came early on Monday, inside a court ringed by security personnel.

Chinese state media reported that during the 9 August trial - which was not open to all - Gu admitted she poisoned Neil Heywood in a hotel room in Chongqing, helped by her aide.

She said she had suffered a mental breakdown and that Mr Heywood had threatened her son amid a row over a property deal, state media said.

Images shown on Chinese state television showed Gu responding to the verdict. "This verdict is just. It shows special respect for the law, reality and life," she said.

Speaking after the sentence was announced, court spokesman Tang Yigan said the court believed Mr Heywood had threatened Gu's son but not acted on the threats. It also found Gu had been suffering from "psychological impairment", he said.

In a statement, the British embassy in Beijing said its thoughts were with the family of Mr Heywood.

"We welcome the fact that the Chinese authorities have investigated the death of Neil Heywood, and tried those they identified as responsible," the statement said.

"We consistently made clear to the Chinese authorities that we wanted to see the trials in this case conform to international human rights standards and for the death penalty not to be applied."

A lawyer for the Heywood family said they respected the court's decision.

The sentence of death with a two-year suspension means that if Gu commits no crimes while in prison, her sentence will be commuted after two years to life imprisonment and could be further reduced for good behaviour, Chinese legal expert Professor Donald Clarke writes in his blog.

Chinese internet users reacted immediately to the verdict on Twitter-like microblogging platforms.

With key names connected to the case still apparently censored, most used the phrase "suspended death sentence". Within two hours, there were at least two million posts.

Many users expressed dissatisfaction, saying most murderers in China would be executed. Some attributed it to Gu's background, others suggested she could eventually be freed under medical parole.

Leadership change

At a separate trial on 10 August, four senior police officers from Chongqing admitted charges of covering up evidence linking Gu to the murder. A court official said they had been given terms of between five and 11 years in prison, AFP reported.

Mr Heywood's death was initially recorded as a heart attack.

The case came to light when Bo Xilai's deputy, police chief Wang Lijun, fled to the US consulate in February, reportedly with information connected to the case.

He has not been seen in public since then and state media say he is being investigated.

It is not yet known how the Communist Party plans to deal with Mr Bo, once seen as a powerful and ambitious high-flier.

Many analysts expected him to be promoted to the nine-strong politburo Standing Committee later in the year.

Seven committee members are due to retire, with a new generation of leaders to take their place at a party congress expected later this year.

But Mr Bo has been stripped of his official posts and is being investigated for "discipline violations", state media reports say.

A lengthy Xinhua news agency write-up of Gu's trial, however, made no mention of Mr Bo.

Olympic tickets: More put on sale

More Olympic tickets will go on sale after the row over empty seats, organisers Locog have said.

Diver Tom Daley is hoping to win his first Olympic medal later

It said an initial 3,000 tickets - including 600 gymnastics tickets - were "put back into the pot" and sold on the London 2012 website on Sunday night.

More tickets returned by sports federations would be released the night before events, Locog added.

Transport chiefs say London's morning rush hour went well on the first full working-day of the Games.

Prime Minister David Cameron, meanwhile, said the empty seats were "disappointing" but not "a unique episode" with other previous Games facing similar problems.

At some venues, seats in the accredited "Olympic family" areas - reserved for groups including officials, sports federations, athletes, journalists and sponsors - have remained empty.

Locog communications director Jackie Brock-Doyle said organisers were doing everything they could to fix the problem.

"We're doing this session by session, talking to the accredited groups - including obviously broadcast media and everybody else - and asking whether we can release, for the different sessions, tickets back into the public pot," she said.
And she said accredited seating for London 2012 was down 15% on previous Games.
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: "Often these are very nice seats in very high-profile positions - and so what we're saying to the IOC and the International Sports Federations is if you're not going to use them, could we have as many as possible back, because, of course, we've got lots of members of the public who would dearly love to go."
He said contractually the seats belonged to the sporting bodies, so it was a process of negotiation to get them released.
In other Olympic developments:

• Olympic organisers say their drug-testing programme targets athletes who show "enhancements in performance"
• PM David Cameron, who chaired the daily Olympics security meeting on Monday morning, said he travelled on the Tube "to see what the traffic situation was like". The Bakerloo line was "doing all right", he said
• Team GB's Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins clocked an Olympic record time of 6mins 44.33secs in the women's double sculls rowing as they powered into the final
• The Olympic cauldron was extinguished overnight - although the Olympic flame was kept alight in a miner's lantern - while it was moved from the field of play to the south end of the Olympic Stadium
• Ten people have been charged with ticket touting offences since the start of the Games, and a further 19 have been arrested, Scotland Yard said

Medal hopes

Transport for London's Games transport director Mark Evers said the network had worked well on Monday morning and that 3,500 back-office staff were out and about fielding questions from travellers.

"Nothing can prepare you fully for the Olympics but we're working very hard to make sure that we both get people to the Games but also make sure that London keeps moving as well," he told BBC News.

London Bridge station is expected to be particularly busy later with thousands of spectators heading to the Olympic Park and equestrian events in Greenwich.

But Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers' Association - representing London cabbies - complained of "chaos" on London's roads as a result of 30 miles of Games Lanes for the use of the Olympic family.

He told BBC News "tens of thousands of Londoners are stuck in gridlock traffic" while Games Lanes were "completely empty".

However, London Mayor Boris Johnson said some of the dedicated Games lanes on roads throughout London had been "turned off", allowing the public to use them, because so many Olympic officials were opting for public transport.

He said IOC president Jacques Rogge had travelled by Docklands Light Rail instead of car.

Olympic organisers expect 1 million extra visitors to London to make some 3 million journeys on public transport - on top of the usual 12m daily public transport journeys.

Those intending to travel in the city have been asked to plan ahead by using the Games' dedicated transport advice website.

Britons travelling to the Olympics will hope for more medals after Team GB won two on Sunday.

Divers Tom Daley and Pete Waterfield are aiming for medals in the men's synchronised 10m platform final, which begins at 14:55 BST.

And Britain's men, who have made history after qualifying in third place for the gymnastics team final - ahead of Olympic and world champions China - will compete at 16:25 BST.

Mexican wave

Meanwhile, Locog says it has checked all seating at temporary Olympics venues after BBC News website readers said flooring below seating at two sites had collapsed.

Michael Page, from Kent, was at the Riverbank Arena watching hockey on Sunday.

He said: "The crowd did a Mexican wave, one row jumped up and the empty seats behind moved forward which meant the flooring collapsed."

Officials drilled the flooring back together before the area was taped off, he added.

Locog's Ms Brock-Doyle said the welding had broken "on one seat at Eton Dorney and on a couple of other seats at the hockey so Games organisers have checked all the seats provided by the contractor to temporary venues".

What are your experiences of the London 2012 Olympic Games so far? Have you been offered an empty seat? You can get in touch using the form below.

Samsung disables Galaxy S3 Google local search function

Samsung has disabled an advanced search function in an update to the international version of its flagship Galaxy S3 smartphone, following a patent dispute with Apple.

Once the software is installed the phones no longer search contacts, apps and other on-device material using software developed by Google.

Android Central, which revealed the news, noted that users were not told the update would disable the service.

It follows a similar move in the US.

Apple claims the innovation infringes its patent to a single search interface which it uses in its Siri app to collate results from a range of sources.

The iPhone maker had already managed to enforce a brief sales ban on another Samsung handset - the Galaxy Nexus - in the US because of the patent.

That dispute will be considered again by a Washington-based court on 20 August - but whatever the ruling, it would not have applied to the GT-i9300 (S3) model sold in the UK and other places outside the US.

A spokeswoman for Samsung was unable to provide more detail.

"Samsung may be doing this as a precautionary measure to prevent it having to pay damages on devices sold outside the US in case Apple prevails in the States and then pursues a similar suit elsewhere," said Simon Clark, head of intellectual property at law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner.

"Generally speaking a multinational company like Apple will have patent protection in all its key countries, and the wording will be very similar in each area. Although patent law can vary across territories it's quite likely that a ruling in one country will lead to similar decisions in others."

California clash

The move marks the latest development in a long string of lawsuits between the two firms over the technologies and designs of their mobile devices.

Apple was defeated in a London court earlier this month when it tried to have Samsung's Galaxy Tab tablets banned in the UK after it failed to convince a judge that the South Korean firm had copied the look of its iPad.

The California-based company was ordered to publish the fact that its competitor had not infringed its registered design on its website and in magazines as a consequence.

However, it was more successful in Germany on Tuesday when an appeals court in Dusseldorf extended a preliminary injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 7.7 across the EU because of a related claim.

The two firms are set to clash again in the US on Monday when a jury will hear patent infringement suits filed by both companies against the other.

According to a court filing posted on the Foss Patents blog, Apple is seeking $2.5bn (£1.6bn) in lost profits and royalty fees but is offering a fraction of that amount - half a cent in damages for each handset it has sold that uses its rival's technologies - to settle Samsung's countersuit.

Samsung later responded with its own filing, alleging that Apple was trying "to stifle legitimate competition and limit consumer choice to maintain its historically exorbitant profits".

Should pregnant women eat for two?

The myth may say that women can pile on the pounds when expecting a baby, but the evidence tells a different story.

Anyone who’s been pregnant will tell you how friends or family members regularly push food towards them, saying: “Go on! Help yourself! You’re eating for two now!” Women who have spent their life worrying about their weight often find themselves thrilled or relieved that at last there’s a good reason not to worry about what they eat. For once, they argue, it’s allowed… and surely it’s good for the baby if you eat plenty?

Unfortunately when you begin to look at the evidence, this doesn’t appear to be the case.

The belief that eating for two is a good idea results in up to a third of women putting on amounts of weight medically considered to be excessive. Not only is this weight hard to lose after the baby’s born, but it can lead to more serious consequences.

There is an increased risk of high blood pressure, pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes. It can also affect the birth itself with a higher rate of interventions, including caesarian sections and even an increased, though still rare, risk of stillbirth.

Professor Jane Ogden, a health psychologist at Surrey University has found that some women feel that pregnancy legitimises the amount they want to eat. If so, there is a danger that becoming accustomed to eating for two can make it hard to return to eating for one after childbirth, or later if you’re breastfeeding.

Getting people to take notice of any guidelines is another matter. A lot of women say they feel perpetually ravenous while they’re pregnant, so it’s not surprising that they eat more.

The American Dietetic Association’s review of interventions to help women avoid excessive weight gain during pregnancy found that some worked and others didn’t. In Finland, women ate more fresh fruit and vegetables as a result of the advice, but didn’t put on less weight. In the US some interventions did work, except when women were obese before they became pregnant.

Other studies in Native American Cree communities in Canada found that nutritional advice had only a modest effect. And a recent review of different interventions found those that encouraged women to eat a healthy diet were more effective in terms of maternal weight and obstetric outcomes than those recommending walking and other types of light exercise.

Calorie count

What if someone’s eating for three or even four because they’re expecting twins or triplets? Do they need to eat significantly more? Perhaps not.

If a woman is carrying more than one foetus her metabolic rate is 10% greater, causing her to use up calories faster. And some diets recommend women expecting twins or triplets eat up to 4,000 calories a day. That’s as much as the British forces are advised to consume on duty in Afghanistan, but this doesn’t take into account that pregnant women are likely to be slightly more sedentary than fighting soldiers.

What’s also true is that women expecting twins or triplets who don’t put on enough weight are more likely to have very small babies. But although women are sometimes told to eat a great deal of extra calories, it’s not clear where the evidence for exactly how many comes from.

Worryingly, a systematic review of studies in 2011 couldn’t identify a single randomized controlled study that compared normal diets with special high calorie diets. Without direct comparison of normal diets with special high calorie diets, who’s to say which advice is correct?

So putting aside the question of the multiple births, how much extra should people try to eat when they’re pregnant?

In the US, the Institute of Medicine recommends that pregnant women eat three meals and two snacks a day. That sounds like plenty until you look at the number of calories recommended: an extra 340 calories a day during the second trimester and 452 calories a day in the third. 

That is the equivalent of a normal diet plus two eggs during the middle months of pregnancy and two chocolate digestives plus some garlic bread in the third. It’s hardly eating for two. As the London obstetrician Patrick O’Brien puts it, “You’re eating for one and a bit.

If you would like to comment on this article or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook page or message us onTwitter.

You can hear more Medical Myths on Health Check on the BBC World Service.

Disclaimer
All content within this column is provided for general information only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other health care professional. The BBC is not responsible or liable for any diagnosis made by a user based on the content of this site. The BBC is not liable for the contents of any external internet sites listed, nor does it endorse any commercial product or service mentioned or advised on any of the sites. Always consult your own GP if you're in any way concerned about your health.

Will we ever… create intelligent robots?

Walking, talking androids have been a sci-fi staple for decades, but as John Pavlus reports building one in reality is still a matter of getting the right parts and smarts.

- We made you ‘cause we could.

- Can you imagine how disappointing it would be for you to hear the same thing from your creator?

In Prometheus, Ridley Scott’s film about a space expedition searching for the origins of human life, the elegant, Lawrence-of-Arabia loving android David discovers from a crew member the possible motives behind his own creation – and understandably finds this less than inspiring.

But the idea of creating intelligent robots has fired human imagination for decades. These robots have taken many forms in speculative fiction, from the seductive charms of Futura in Fritz Lang’s masterpiece Metropolis to the urbane, existential angst of David in Prometheus. In reality, though, how far have we progressed towards being able to create an intelligent robot just “’cause we could”?

To understand where we are now, we have to go back about twenty years, to a time when artificial intelligence research was in crisis. Rodney Brooks, then a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote a landmark paper in 1990 stating: "Artificial Intelligence research has foundered in a sea of incrementalism… small AI companies are folding, and attendance is well down at national and international Artificial Intelligence conferences... What has gone wrong?"

The problem, as Brooks saw it, was that the type of research inspired by Alan Turing’s famous artificial intelligence test had hit a dead end. The Turing test directed decades of AI efforts towards devising computer systems that “thought” by solving logic problems –focusing on the "sea of symbols", as Brooks put it, that were believed to undergird intelligence. These systems could shuffle and sort information with dizzying speed, giving them the appearance of intelligence when performing certain abstract tasks (like playing chess). But when it came to “common sense” intelligence – the kind we rely on when selecting a book from a bookshelf, distinguishing a cat from a dog or a rock, or holding a glass of water without dropping or crushing it – this symbolic, Turing-style AI couldn’t cope.

Get smart

A better alternative for AI was to take a “situated” route, as Brooks called it. The first order of business: forget about building brains that can solve logical problems. Instead, focus on building bodies that can deal with and respond to the physical world. In other words: build robots.

There's something about an embodied agent that seems more "intelligent", in a general sense, than any algorithm. IBM's Watson systemmay be able to beat humans at Jeopardy! with its deep reservoir of facts – an impressive simulation of "book smarts". But Boston Dynamics' Big Dog robot, manoeuvering itself sure-footedly up hills and around unfamiliar obstacles, and even maintaining its balance when shoved by its human companion, actually seems to be smart – at least, in the same way a dog or horse is.

"One kind of smart has to do with knowing a lot of facts and being able to reason and solve problems; another kind of smart has to do with understanding how our bodies work and being able to control them," says Marc Raibert, CEO of Boston Dynamics. "That kind of smart helps people and animals move with remarkable mobility, agility, dexterity, and speed."

When Brooks wrote about this new kind of artificial intelligence in his 1990 paper, he introduced half a dozen robots who look like Big Dog's evolutionary ancestors. One of them was Genghis, a six-legged insect-like robot that could autonomously negotiate unfamiliar terrain in an eerily lifelike way, without any high-order processing or centralized control system. All it had were lots of simple sensors "tightly coupled" to motor controllers in each leg, loosely connected in a “nerve-like” network to pass sensory information between the motors, "without any attempt at integration".

This primitive-seeming architecture, wrote Brooks, was the key to someday building artificially intelligent robots: Parts before smarts.

Brooks's insight paved the way for Boston Dynamics' lifelike robots, as well as Brooks's own iRobot corporation (which manufactures Roombasand bomb-defusing robots for the military). And yet a truly intelligent robot – with parts and smarts equivalent even to that of a domestic dog – has yet to be built. Why? Not because situated AI turned out to be yet another dead end, but because it addressed a newer, harder problem, known asMoravec's Paradox. "It is comparatively easy to make computers exhibit adult level performance on intelligence tests or playing checkers, and difficult or impossible to give them the skills of a one-year-old [human] when it comes to perception and mobility," roboticist Hans Moravec wrote in 1988.

Acting human

So how can we solve Moravec's Paradox? One approach is to take the assumptions of situated AI to their logical endpoint: If we want to build a robot with human-like intelligence, first build a robot with humanlike anatomy. A team of European researchers has done just that: theirECCERobot (Embodied Cognition in a Compliantly Engineered Robot) has a thermoplastic skeleton complete with vertebrae, phalanges, and a ribcage. Instead of rigid motors, it has muscle-like actuators and rubber tendons. It has as many degrees of movement as a human torso; it flops into a heap when its power is turned off, just like an unconscious human would. And most importantly, all of these parts are studded with sensors.

"The patterns of sensory stimulation that we generate from moving our bodies in space and interacting with our environment are the basic building blocks of cognition," says Rolf Pfeifer, a lead researcher on ECCERobot. "When I grasp a cup, I am inducing sensory stimulation in the hand; in my eyes, from seeing how the scene changes; and proprioceptively [in my muscles], since I can feel its weight.”

These sensory patterns are the raw material for the brain to learn something about the environment and how to make distinctions in the real world, says Pfeifer, and these patterns depend strongly on the particular actions we perform with our particular body parts. “So if we want the robot to acquire the same concepts that we do,” he says, “it would have to start by generating the same sensory patterns that we do, which implies that it would need to have the same body plan as we do."

For now, ECCERobot's humanoid physiology is so difficult to control that it can barely pick up an object, much less exhibit intelligent behaviour. But Pfeifer and his team aren't the only ones exploring this "anthropomimetic" strategy: Boston Dynamics, the same firm that created Big Dog, is working with DARPA, the US military's research wing, to develop a humanoid robot called ATLAS which will "use the arms in conjunction with the legs to get higher levels of rough-terrain locomotion," says Raibert.

In any case, says Pfeifer, building an intelligent humanoid robot – one that "can smoothly interact with humans and human environments in a natural way" – will require breakthroughs in computing and battery efficiency, not to mention a quantum leap in sensory equipment. "A really crucial development will be skin," he says. "Skin is extremely important in the development of intelligence because it provides such rich sensory patterns: touch, temperature, pain, all at once."

A robot with skin and human-like internal anatomy starts to sound less like a robot at all, and more like a synthetic organism – much like David inPrometheus. Which takes us back to the question he asks in the film. Or as Pfeifer more pragmatically puts it: "Why build a robot which is a very fragile and expensive copy of a human being?"

It is a very useful goal, Pfeifer argues. “Even if we still mostly want robots to do specialized tasks, there will be tons of spinoffs from an understanding of humanoid, intelligent behaviour. Yes, we'll draw inspiration from biology. But that doesn't imply that we won't go beyond it."

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Researchers use spoofing to 'hack' into a flying drone

                          

American researchers took control of a flying drone by hacking into its GPS system - acting on a $1,000 (£640) dare from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

A University of Texas at Austin team used "spoofing" - a technique where the drone mistakes the signal from hackers for the one sent from GPS satellites.

The same method may have been used to bring down a US drone in Iran in 2011.

Analysts say that the demo shows the potential danger of using drones.

Drones are unmanned aircraft, often controlled from a hub located thousands of kilometres away.

They are mostly used by the military in conflict zones such as Afghanistan.

Todd Humphreys and his colleagues from the Radionavigation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin hacked the GPS system of a drone belonging to the university.

They demonstrated the technique to DHS officials, using a mini helicopter drone, flown over a stadium in Austin, said Fox News, who broke the story.

"What if you could take down one of these drones delivering FedEx packages and use that as your missile?" Fox News quoted Mr Humphreys.

"That's the same mentality the 911 attackers had."

Potential dangers

The spoofed drone used an unencrypted GPS signal, which is normally used by civilian planes, says Noel Sharkey, co-founder of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control.

"It's easy to spoof an unencrypted drone. Anybody technically skilled could do this - it would cost them some £700 for the equipment and that's it," he told BBC News.

"It's very dangerous - if a drone is being directed somewhere using its GPS, [a spoofer] can make it think it's somewhere else and make it crash into a building, or crash somewhere else, or just steal it and fill it with explosives and direct somewhere.

"But the big worry is - it also means that it wouldn't be too hard for [a very skilled person] to work out how to un-encrypt military drones and spoof them, and that could be extremely dangerous because they could turn them on the wrong people.

SPOOFING EXPLAINED

"Imagine you've got a plane in the air and it sends back information to the person controlling it on the ground.

So if I wanted to fly my drone on a route between London and Birmingham, delivering mail for instance, I would get continuous signals coming back telling me where it is at all times.

And I would get GPS co-ordinates, using a signal from the satellite to navigate.

But if the drone is near Birmingham, but it receives GPS co-ordinates for Gloucester, it would then think it is in Gloucester and make an adjustment to go further north, changing the course."

Noel Sharkey

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Olympic rings lowered over Thames

A set of giant Olympic rings has been lowered from Tower Bridge over the River Thames in London, marking one month until the start of the Games.

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson says it shows the city's readiness to host the event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhpRsJUyPgo

Role of stress in dementia investigated

By Damir DervanovicHealth editor, DDC World News online

UK experts are to begin a study to find out if stress can trigger dementia.

The investigation, funded by the Alzheimer's Society, will monitor 140 people with mild cognitive impairment or "pre-dementia" and look at how stress affects their condition.

The researchers will take blood and saliva samples at six-monthly intervals over the 18 months of the study to measure biological markers of stress.

They hope their work will reveal ways to prevent dementia.

The results could offer clues to new treatments or better ways of managing the condition, they say.

Dementia triggers

People who have mild cognitive impairment are at an increased risk of going on to develop dementia - although some will remain stable and others may improve.

And past work suggests mid-life stress may increase a person's risk of Alzheimer's disease.

A Swedish study that followed nearly 1,500 women for a period of 35 years found the risk of dementia was about 65% higher in women who reported repeated periods of stress in middle age than in those who did not.

Scottish scientists, who have done studies in animals, believe the link may be down to hormones the body releases in response to stress which interfere with brain function.

Prof Clive Holmes, from the University of Southampton, who will lead the study, said: "All of us go through stressful events. We are looking to understand how these may become a risk factor for the development of Alzheimer's.

"Something such as bereavement or a traumatic experience - possibly even moving home - are also potential factors.

"This is the first stage in developing ways in which to intervene with psychological or drug-based treatments to fight the disease.

"We are looking at two aspects of stress relief - physical and psychological - and the body's response to that experience."

Dr Simon Ridley, of Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "We welcome any research that could shed new light on Alzheimer's disease and other causes of dementia.

"Understanding the risk factors for Alzheimer's could provide one piece of the puzzle we need to take us closer to a treatment that could stop the disease in its tracks."

Queen and Martin McGuinness shake hands

The Queen shook hands with former IRA commander Martin McGuinness.

The Queen and former IRA commander Martin McGuinness have shaken hands for the first time.

The meeting between the monarch and Northern Ireland's deputy first minister took place at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast on Wednesday.

It happened at an event organised by a charity, Co-Operation Ireland, which works to bring communities together.

They shook hands at a private meeting and later shook hands in public.

The private meeting, in a room at the theatre, involved a group of seven people, including Irish President Michael D Higgins and Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson

It is understood Mr McGuinness welcomed both the Queen and the Irish president in Irish.

The deputy first minister is said to have commented on the Queen's visit to Dublin last year, and in particular her comments regarding all the victims of the Troubles.

A Sinn Fein spokesman said: "He emphasised the need to acknowledge the pain of all victims of the conflict and their families."

Sinn Fein said Mr McGuinness told the Queen that their meeting was a "powerful signal that peace-building requires leadership".

Later, as the Queen left to continue her Diamond Jubilee tour of Northern Ireland, the pair shook hands again, this time in public.

As they shook hands for a second time, Mr McGuinness wished the Queen well in Irish, which translates: "Goodbye and God bless."

The BBC's royal correspondent Peter Hunt said: "Asked how it was to meet Queen, Martin McGuinness replied 'very nice'".

The main event had been billed as one to celebrate the role of the arts in contributing to reconciliation and peace-building and not as part of the Jubilee celebrations.

During the event, the Queen was presented with a gift of Belleek pottery to mark her Diamond Jubilee.

President Higgins said he and his wife, Sabina, had been delighted "to have the opportunity for a brief but very warm meeting" with the Queen.

He said it marked "another important step on the journey to reconciliation on this island".

The prime minister's official spokesman said the Queen's visit to the Republic of Ireland last year had "taken relations between the two countries to a new level".

The spokesperson added: "We think it is right that the Queen should meet representatives from all parts of the community."

Those present at the Lyric event included the pianist Barry Douglas, poet Michael Longley and actors Adrian Dunbar and Conleth Hill.

BBC Northern Ireland's political editor Mark Devenport said the occasion at the Lyric had been specifically designed to meet Sinn Fein's sensitivities and to ensure that a ground-breaking encounter could take place.

"It is being stressed the arts event has a cross-border dimension and is not part of the Jubilee celebrations," he said.

"That is in contrast to the huge party planned for Stormont, which is a celebration of the Queen's 60-year reign organised by the Northern Ireland Office."

The Queen and Prince Philip later toured Titanic Belfast, a new visitors' centre located near where the ship was built. She has also unveiled a plaque to commemorate the visit.

She enjoyed a lunch which included traditional Irish soda bread, Comber potatoes, the sweet toffee yellow man, and icecream.

Northern Ireland's first minister said thousands were waiting for the Queen at Stormont.

"I am certain, you will receive a massive, unparalleled and enthusiastic expression of affection and fidelity," he told the Queen.

"I know for many in the media, the focus has been on a handshake and a photograph, but for most people in Northern Ireland it is not about one moment of history but the opportunity to celebrate and give thanks for 60 very full years of Your Majesty's service to this nation."

About 20,000 people are expected to attend the event at Stormont later.

• There will be live coverage of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee visit at 14:45 BST on BBC Two NI with live streaming online on the BBC Northern Ireland news website.

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Spice Girls unveil West End show

By Tim Masters

The Spice Girls have reunited to launch Viva Forever!, a new West End musical based on their hit songs.

Victoria Beckham, Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell helped unveil the show at a central London hotel on Tuesday.

"We're going to be introducing a whole new generation to Girl Power," Beckham said.

Written by Jennifer Saunders, the musical explores the "bitter reality of fame" brought by a TV talent show.

Viva Forever! opens at London's Piccadilly Theatre on 11 December.

The show is the idea of Judy Craymer, producer of Abba musical Mamma Mia!, who described Saunders as a "brilliant collaborator".

"She understands the anxieties in women, the fear of judgment and trepidation that one day they get to a certain age and become invisible," Craymer said.

The launch event was held in the neo-Gothic St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, the location where the Spice Girls filmed the video for their breakthrough hit Wannabe in 1996.

Reunited on the same podium, the five ex-bandmates exchanged banter about Halliwell's exit from the group at the height of their fame in 1998.

"I've got to say these girls are amazing and brilliant and loving," said Halliwell.

"Every time I see them, and I don't see them that often, independently and collectively they're really lovely. I'm really grateful to have good friends like this."

"She's only saying that because she left," joked Chisholm, aka Mel C.

"To have our songs performed night after night in a theatre is an honour for us," Chisholm went on.

"My little boy doesn't know who were are, so I can't wait for him to see this," said Emma Bunton.

According to its producers, Viva Forever! is "the story of a beautiful, talented girl and her best friends who get swept up in the obsession of today's TV celebrity culture".

Craymer said Saunders' story would "embrace all generations".

"We listened to Spice Girls songs for nine months non-stop," she said. "Jennifer came up with a heart-warming family story that touches on celebrity today."

The show, Craymer continued, was "very much about the chaos that a TV talent show can bring on a family and friendship".

Saunders, the writer of TV comedy Absolutely Fabulous, said both she and her daughters had been Spice Girls fans.

"I remember the joy and energy and positivity that they brought, and I wanted to bring that to the story," she told reporters.

The musical will be directed by Paul Garrington, who has staged international productions of Mamma Mia! and Dirty Dancing.

'Jukebox' musical

Viva Forever! is the latest in a line of so-called "jukebox" musicals that use popular songs to score what is often a fresh storyline.

The commercial success of Mamma Mia! has helped fuel dozens of similar shows, such as Jersey Boys - featuring the hits of Franki Valli and the Four Seasons - and the Michael Jackson show Thriller Live.

Mamma Mia!, which opened in 1999, is booking in the West End until April 2013, while We Will Rock You, based on the music of Queen, recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.

Yet other examples of the genre have enjoyed lesser success.

Despite winning an Olivier for best new musical, the Madness-based Our House closed in 2003 after 10 months in the West End.

The opening of Viva Forever! will coincide with that of The Bodyguard, a musical based on the 1992 Whitney Houston film that opens at the Adelphi in December.

According to theatre critic Mark Shenton, "the received wisdom on jukebox musicals is the band mustn't be alive or touring".

"I'm wondering if the Spice Girls are too familiar to need this treatment," he told the BBC News website.

"On the other hand if anyone can do it Judy Craymer can, because she created the trend and there have been many imitators in her wake."

The Spice Girls topped the charts in 31 countries with their 1996 debut single Wannabe and went on to sell more than 75 million albums worldwide.

The group created the 1990s mantra "Girl Power" and starred in their own feature film, Spiceworld, in 1997.

The Spice Girls disbanded in 2000 but reformed seven years later for a reunion tour.

Craymer said she was "thrilled" the five had shown "so much encouragement and support" about a musical she insisted was "not a tribute show".

"The positivity, energy, humour, excitement and friendships that encapsulated the Spice Girls and their songs have inspired the whole creative team," she added.

Previews of Viva Forever! begin at the Piccadilly on 27 November.

Facebook's email switch prompts criticism by users

Facebook is facing a backlash from users after replacing email addresses listed in members' contacts with those provided by its @facebook.com system.

The company said it had acted to make details "consistent" across its site.

If Facebook's email system takes off it could drive more traffic to the firm's pages helping boost advertising sales.

But some users have branded the move "annoying" and "lame" and publicised instructions on how to display original addresses instead of the Facebook ones.

Facebook first announced plans for the move in April, although the news attracted little attention at the time.

"We are providing every Facebook user with his or her own Facebook email address because we find that many users find it useful to connect with each other, but using Facebook email is completely up to you," said a statement from the company.

Emails sent to @facebook.com addresses appear alongside posts sent via the network's internal message system, allowing users to pick up both types of communication from the same place.

Annoyed users

One analyst told the BBC the effort could backfire.

"It reeks of the same move Google did with its Buzz product when it automatically opted people in, and users recoiled against the action," said Anthony Mullen, interactive marketing analyst at Forrester Research.

"This is a direction Facebook needs to move in - your email is a proxy for your identity on the internet and Facebook want to usurp people's pre-existing email identities with their own to help drive up traffic to its site and lock users into its service.

"The problem is the lack of transparency - it has acted without asking for members' permission first."

Messages posted to the rival social network Twitter suggested the move had annoyed some users.

"Warnings would have been nice Facebook, don't just go and change email addresses," tweeted Josselyn Arundell from Manchester.

"More stunningly bad work from Facebook," posted London-based Darren Gough.

"Good idea to get people to use it. Poorly executed!!!" added Brent Jagodnik from California.

Few messages supported the move.

Users wishing to undo the change can do so by clicking on the "about" link in their profile and then clicking the "edit" button next to their contact information.

They then need to click make their Facebook email address "hidden from timeline" and then - if they wish - make one or more of their other preferred addresses visible.