Artist James Hart Dyke spent a year with MI6 sketching and painting the secret world of espionage.
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Politician dies in Honduras crash
The plane crashed in a heavily wooded area outside the capital Related Stories
A deputy minister, Rodolfo Robelo, is among 14 people reported dead in a plane crash in Honduras.
The small commercial plane was on a routine scheduled flight from the coastal city of San Pedro Sula to the capital, Tegucigalpa.
Also among those killed was former finance minister Carlos Chain and a trade union leader, Israel Salinas Jorge Castellanos.
An ambulance and helicopters have been dispatched to the site of the crash.
But it is said to be a heavily wooded area which may be difficult to reach.
The commander of the Air Force, Ruis Landa, said the plane – a Let 410 twin-engine, operated by Central American Airlines – had lost contact with air traffic control in a region south of Tegucigalpa.
The plane was on its way from San Pedro Sula to Tegucigalpa Local residents heard the explosion as the aircraft hit the ground and raced to the scene to try to help any survivors, reported local newspaper El Heraldo. But when they reached the area, they found a chilling scene of scattered bodies, the local mayor told the newspaper.
Two crew were among the 14 who died.
One of the pilots is reported to have survived the initial crash, but died before he could be taken to hospital.
The accident happened in the same area where a SAHSA airlines plane crashed in 1989, killing 131 people.
An investigation into the cause of the crash is under way.
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VIDEO: Amateur footage of Tehran protests
Mobile phones have been used to capture footage of an opposition rally in the Iranian capital Tehran, called in solidarity with the popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
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VIDEO: Benjamin issues funding plea for children’s films
Former Play School television presenter Baroness Benjamin has called for a ring-fenced budget for children’s films to end the current “crisis”.
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Reaction ‘degrades van Gogh work’
The van Gogh paintings examined include Banks of the Seine Related Stories
Scientists have identified why the bright yellows in some of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings have turned brown.
A complex chemical reaction is behind the deterioration of the works.
The finding is a first step to understanding how to stop some of the Dutch master’s most famous paintings from fading over time.
The results, published in the journal Analytical Chemistry, suggest shielding the affected paintings as much as possible from UV and sunlight.
Uncovering the secrets of the chemical reaction required the scientists to use an array of analytical tools.
These included the intense X-ray beams produced at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), a world-leading centre for the study of the structure of materials in Grenoble, France.
The intense X-rays produced at the ESRF were used to analyse the samples Sunlight can penetrate only a few micrometres into the paint, but over this short distance, the researchers found it could trigger a hitherto unknown chemical reaction turning chrome yellow into brown pigments, altering the original composition.
The scientists employed a microscopic X-ray beam to reveal a complex chemical reaction taking place in the incredibly thin layer where the paint meets the varnish.
The vibrancy of new industrial pigments such as chrome yellow allowed van Gogh to achieve the intensity of, for example, his series of Sunflowers paintings.
He started to paint in these bright colours after leaving his native Holland for France where he became friends with artists who shared his new ideas about the use of colours.
The researchers found that a change in the oxidation state of the element chromium (from chromium 6 to chromium 3) was linked to the darkening of chrome yellow paint.
The X-ray beam research carried out at ESRF also showed that chromium 3 was especially prominent in the presence of chemical compounds which contained barium and sulphur.
Based on this observation, the scientists speculate that van Gogh’s technique of blending white and yellow paint might be the cause of the darkening of his yellow paint.
Co-author Koen Janssens commented: “Our next experiments are already in the pipeline.
“Obviously, we want to understand which conditions favour the reduction of chromium, and whether there is any hope to revert pigments to the original state in paintings where it is already taking place.”
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Troubled Newbury card rescheduled
Newbury reschedules Saturday’s meeting, which was abandoned following the deaths of two horses in the paddock, for Friday, February 18.
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Hodgson expects West Brom support
New West Brom manager Roy Hodgson believes he will receive support from the club in their bid to stay in the Premier League, though he concedes he has taken on a ‘very difficult challenge’.
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Man arrested over Nintendo hack
Details of 4,000 Nintendo users were stolen, according to Spanish Police Related Stories
Police in Spain have arrested a man who allegedly stole details on thousands of Nintendo users and tried to blackmail the company.
The unnamed individual obtained data on 4,000 gamers, according to Spain’s Interior Ministry.
It is claimed he threatened to contact the country’s data protection agency, accusing the firm of negligence.
When Nintendo did not respond, he began leaking some of the information online, said police.
The man was arrested in the southern province of Malaga.
Authorities say he had been planning to release the full contents of the user database onto the internet.
It is unclear if the alleged theft was from Nintendo’s own computer system or that of a third party.
Nintendo said it was unable to comment on the case as is was the subject of of an active investigation by the Spanish authorities.
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Cambridge backs £9,000 fees plan
Cambridge University plans to offer poorer students support worth up to £4,600 per year Cambridge University has moved a step closer to introducing tuition fees at the maximum level of £9,000 per year.
The university’s council has accepted a recommendation for £9,000 fees – with plans for a support package of £4,600 for low-income students.
There will now be a vote among the university’s academics on the fees and bursary package.
Last week Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg warned universities would have to widen access before charging £9,000.
A meeting by the university’s council on Monday accepted proposals for the maximum fee level, as recommended by the university’s working group on fees.
This includes a package of support for low-income students of £4,600 per year, in bursaries and fee-waivers.
The university says there will be a further debate of the proposals this week among colleges and then a vote among academics in the Regent House, the university’s governing body.
The proposals will then have to be put to the Office for Fair Access, which will scrutinise how access will be protected for poorer students.
Each step is moving the university towards adopting the highest level of tuition from 2012.
A final announcement on fees is expected in the summer.
The Cambridge University Students’ Union says students are “outraged and disappointed that this government has forced us, through savage cuts, into a position where their maximum fees are unavoidable”.
The students’ union says it has “secured an increase in the total spend on bursaries and fee waivers to at least £4,600 per eligible student”.
It wants poorer students to have bursaries rather than a subsidy in fees.
“This is an improvement, but is only the beginning: students rightly expect this figure to be pushed up further still, especially in the context of the disastrous introduction of £9,000 fees,” said students’ union president Rahul Mansigani.
The government, which pushed through the controversial plan to raise fees to £9,000, has been warning universities that they should not assume that they will be able to charge the maximum amount.
Mr Clegg told students last week that it would be up to the Office for Fair Access to decide on whether universities could charge above £6,000 per year.
Oxford University has warned that it will need to charge at least £8,000 per year to replace budget cuts.
There have also been concerns that there will be insufficient funding for student loans if most universities charge at the upper end of the fees range.
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