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It was no ordinary arrival of a baby girl.
The birth of the world’s first IVF baby, Louise Brown, in July 1978 was a huge international event – and also a very special moment for the Edwards family.
They were away from their Cambridge home at a holiday cottage in the Yorkshire Dales, to try to escape the press attention.
Jenny (far left) with her mum and sisters in the early 1970s
Professor Robert Edwards is the physiologist who developed the IVF technique – along with his late colleague, Dr Patrick Steptoe. They established the world’s first IVF clinic, Bourn Hall in Cambridgeshire.
Professor Edwards’ second daughter Dr Jenny Joy and her four sisters are full of pride today. They have travelled to Sweden to celebrate their father being awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine on Friday.
Jenny, now 50, was 18 when Louise Brown was born.
She remembers: “That moment was the pinnacle – but there’d been so many years of research leading to it.
“Dad was totally dedicated – nothing was going to put him off. ”
Dr Jenny Joy Daughter of Professor Edwards
“I just remember Dad going to the hospital in Oldham quite regularly – and then coming back elated.
“The press were camped out there waiting for the birth. There were huge celebrations.
“Having a healthy baby was the key thing – the critics were waiting to pounce.
“There had been pregnancies before and they hadn’t gone full term. When the baby was born safely, everyone was ecstatic. There had been so many hurdles on the way.
“In the early days the press reports were often sensational. But Dad was totally dedicated to his cause and nothing was going to put him off.
“It was wonderful for Dad to have a big family of five girls. It made him appreciate what others were missing.
“He was well aware of the anguish of infertility, and he thought that having life and children was one of the most important things in the world.”
Professor Edwards, 85, is too frail to travel to Sweden to collect the award – so his wife, Ruth Fowler, is collecting it on his behalf.
They met when she was studying for her PhD in Edinburgh, and she worked alongside him, helping produce scientific papers as well as looking after the family.
IVF is now a well-established technique, but in those days it was controversial.
The infertile women who were seeking treatment often had to keep their efforts secret from family and friends.
“Dad considered standing as MP for Cambridge. We’re glad he chose physiology!”
Dr Jenny Joy Daughter of Professor Robert Edwards
Jenny said: “This idea of a test-tube baby was alien to most people’s thoughts. People imagined them actually growing in test tubes.
“We grew up with the press on the phone, trying to talk to Dad.
“Now everyone knows someone who’s had IVF. And for us, the programme has been part of our lives.”
Jenny now works in butterfly conservation – but she was an auxiliary nurse at Bourn Hall when it opened.
She’s keen to pay tribute to her father’s determination, and his other qualities and interests.
She said: “Whatever the setbacks in his work on IVF, it never put him off.
Dr Jenny Joy (top) and Louise Brown celebrate the Nobel Prize win
“He’s always been an ideas man – full of energy and incredibly driven.
“He loves the Yorkshire Dales and we always used to go there for family holidays. He’d be out stone walling and sheep dipping, or out looking after trees on his old yellow tractor.
“He was very involved in Labour politics – and at one point considered standing as MP for Cambridge. We’re glad he chose physiology!
“When we got the phone call about the Nobel Prize, we really couldn’t believe it. Everyone cried.
“It’s wonderful he’s been recognised in this way. And it’s very important to Dad.”
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Burma’s military leaders have denied that the country is developing nuclear technology
Burma may be building missile and nuclear sites in remote locations with support from North Korea, according to secret US cables released by Wikileaks.
The documents cite witnesses who say North Korean workers are helping Burma construct an underground bunker in a remote jungle.
The move underlines concern that the Burmese regime might be trying to build a nuclear weapon, despite denials.
Wikileaks has so far released more than 1,100 of 251,000 diplomatic cables.
The reports, which stretch over the past six years, suggest dockworkers and foreign businessmen have seen evidence of alleged sites.
A cable dating from August 2004 spoke of a Burmese officer in an engineering unit who said surface-to-air missiles were being built at a site in a town called Minbu in west-central Myanmar.
“The North Koreans, aided by Burmese workers, are constructing a concrete-reinforced underground facility that is ‘500ft from the top of the cave to the top of the hill above’,” reads the cable, published by the Guardian newspaper.
Some 300 North Koreans were working at the site, the authors said, although the cable suggested this number was improbably high.
An expatriate businessman also told the US Embassy in Rangoon that he had heard rumours of a nuclear site being built.
According to another cable, the businessman told an embassy officer about rumours of a large barge unloading reinforced steel which looked as if it was for a project larger than a factory.
Analysts have previously raised concerns that Burma is co-operating with North Korea to develop nuclear technology, although Burma has denied the claim.
The BBC’s diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says that for months there have been persistent reports in the press and specialised journals suggesting that Burma is building a nuclear facility with North Korean help.
Those reports are mainly derived from clues pieced together from defectors and satellite imagery, he adds.
There is nothing in the cables to confirm what Burma and North Korea may be up to, but they do provide a fascinating insight into the jigsaw of information on which western intelligence is based, our correspondent says.
Another cable released by the whistle-blowing site suggests that China, Burma’s most powerful ally, is growing impatient with the country’s leaders.
Two years ago, Chinese Ambassador Guan Mu told US diplomats that there was a risk of turmoil in Burma.
He suggested that the country’s ruling generals would cede power if they were offered assurances that they would not “lose their lives” and if they could keep their economic interests.
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This year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo. Mr Liu will not be there to pick up the award at the ceremony on Friday in Oslo, as he is serving an 11-year prison sentence for subversion.
Previously, four other Nobel Peace Prize winners have been unable to pick up their awards in person.
Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma) – winner of Nobel Peace Prize in 1991
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi tells BBC World Service how she felt on hearing the news she had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991
Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, a year after her National League for Democracy won an overwhelming victory in elections – a vote that was nullified by the junta.
At the time of her award, she was under house arrest and heard the news on the BBC, which was “a little strange,” she says.
“It had something to do with me obviously, and yet it seemed to have nothing to do with me because it was so distant,” she told BBC World Service.
She says the award “heartened” her supporters at a difficult time. Her son Alexander Aris attended the ceremony in Oslo in her place, and made a speech on her behalf.
Aung San Suu Kyi was released last month after spending most of the last 20 years in detention.
“I would now dearly love to go to Oslo to thank the people of Norway for their strong support,” she says.
Aung San Suu Kyi told the BBC she would like to “hold out a hand of sympathy” to Liu Xiaobo, and she said it was “very sad” that his chair would be empty at Friday’s award ceremony.
Lech Walesa (Poland) – winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983
Lech Walesa in 1988 at a march marking the anniversary of the workers’ riots
The Polish trade union leader and later president, Lech Walesa, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 for his peaceful opposition to Communism.
He was one of the founding members of Solidarity, and spearheaded the East European anti-Communist movement.
Lech Walesa decided not to attend the ceremony in Oslo for fear that he would not be allowed back into Poland. His wife and eldest son went in his place.
In 1981, Mr Walesa had been arrested and later released as part of an anti-democracy crackdown.
His son Jaroslaw Walesa told BBC World Service that his father’s award was a “tremendous help” to Poland and came at a time when “belief in peaceful change was just dissolving”.
In 1984 Solidarity was legalised, and in 1990 Lech Walesa was elected president of Poland, a post he held for five years.
Mr Walesa offered to collect the award for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo in his absence.
Andrei Sakharov (Soviet Union) – winner of Nobel Peace Prize 1975
Andrei Sakharov talking to Western reporters in Moscow in 1988, after a meeting with the US Secretary of State to discuss human rights
In 1975, nuclear physicist and human rights activist Andrei Sakharov became the first Soviet citizen to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
His work in the 1950s helped lead to the creation of the first hydrogen bomb. Then in the 1960s and 1970s he became politically active, calling for drastic reductions in nuclear arms and co-founding the Moscow Human Rights Committee.
Soviet authorities did not allow Mr Sakharov to travel to Oslo to collect the award.
His wife Yelena Bonner, who went to Oslo in his place, described it as, “a great emotional burden; a pleasing and important task from my husband”.
She told BBC World Service that the award helped focus international attention on the situation in the Soviet Union, and especially those referred to at the time as “dissidents”.
Andrei Sakharov died in 1989. The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is awarded annually by the European Parliament to individuals working on human rights.
Carl von Ossietzky (Germany) – winner of Nobel Peace Prize 1935
Carl von Ossietzky (l) spent time in prison and in a concentration camp
The German journalist and pacifist Carl von Ossietzky was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1935, but he was prevented from travelling to the ceremony in Oslo by the authorities in Nazi Germany, who regarded him as a traitor.
He was a highly controversial choice at the time. It was the first time the winner had not been able to attend in person, and the first time the King of Norway had stayed away.
In 1931, Carl von Ossietzky was sentenced to 18 months in prison for an article he had published in his magazine. He was released, but soon afterwards was sent to the Sonnenburg concentration camp.
His friends lobbied hard for him to be considered a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, in the hope that this would secure his freedom.
Carl von Ossietzky was transferred to a hospital under surveillance, where he died of tuberculosis in 1938.
His Nobel medal is kept at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg in Germany.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Evictions by social landlords have dropped by about a third in the past year
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The number of tenants being evicted by social landlords in Scotland has fallen by a third, new figures suggest.
Housing charity Shelter Scotland said evictions by councils and housing associations dropped from 3,297 to 2,204 last year.
However, the charity said “too many” social landlords were still using rent arrears as a reason to remove tenants.
In total 96% of the evictions were for rent arrears, with the rest largely for anti-social behaviour.
According to its annual report, Shelter said about 75,000 threats of eviction were issued in 2009-10.
It also found that 20 out of 26 local authority landlords had made significant reductions in the number of evictions.
The level of rent arrears had also fallen by 9% over the same period.
Of those who were evicted – 1,262 were done so by local authorities, while 942 were evicted by registered social landlords (RSL).
Graeme Brown, director of Shelter Scotland, said: “We have been campaigning to make eviction the last resort for social landlords and these figures show that landlords are responding to our concerns.
“We congratulate those local authorities and RSLs who have made major progress in reducing evictions and urge those who are falling behind to look again at their policies and practices.”
Mr Brown said the Scottish government needed to “quickly implement” new requirements that all landlords must take before starting court action.
He added: “Our analysis shows that progressive landlords are reducing evictions and arrears at the same time.
“However, with 75,000 threats of eviction issued last year, too many social landlords are still using the threat of eviction as a rent collection tool rather than a real last resort.”
The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) said that while it welcomed the drop in eviction rates, the option to evict in some cases was essential.
Chief executive Mary Taylor said: “The SFHA’s Preventing Eviction and Alleviating Homelessness Guidance confirms quite clearly that eviction should only be used as a last resort, but nonetheless we maintain that the ability to evict is necessary as the ultimate and sparingly-used sanction in extreme cases.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Deliveries have included motorway service stations which had been running low
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Targeted fuel deliveries are taking place and more schools are reopening as efforts continue to get life back to normal across frozen Scotland.
A week of intense cold and heavy snowfalls has seen roads blocked, deliveries disrupted and schools closed for days on end in some areas.
A slight rise in temperatures has allowed the transport network to clear but drivers are urged to take care.
The Scottish government said fuel supplies were returning to normal.
The Grangemouth refinery has stepped up production to cope with an expected increase in demand over the weekend.
The government said that filling stations which experienced shortages earlier in the week, including Harthill on the M8, would be among the first to receive deliveries.
Fuel tankers were also bound for stations along the M73 and M74 and fuel trains were taking deliveries to Prestwick, Lanarkshire and north west Scotland.
On Thursday a third of independent Scottish garage forecourts had been closed after they were unable to receive fuel supplies.
Bad roads and backlogs in deliveries have seen shortages on supermarket shelves reported in some areas.
Finance Secretary John Swinney said: “As the severe weather lessens it grip over the weekend we anticipate an increase in demand for fuel.
“Grangemouth refinery is preparing for this by ramping up operations to ensure that there is enough fuel available to allow people to get out and about over the weekend.”
In schools, most councils are intending to have all schools open or only have limited closures, although there are still transport issues across the country.
For some pupils it will be their first day back since last week.
Rising temperatures have also seen warnings from the police and fire services over the dangers of flooding from burst pipes, falling icicles from overhangs on buildings and dangerous ice cover on frozen lochs and ponds.
Although road conditions are improving in some pares, routes are expected to ice over from falling temperatures overnight.
In Edinburgh the Army has been on the streets to help clear snow and ice and North Lanarkshire Council has also asked for military assistance to help it cope.
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African-American and Latino adults in the US who use the internet are twice as likely as whites to use the website Twitter, a survey suggests.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Westminster will be the scene of the tuition fees vote and student protests
The controversy over raising tuition fees in England to £9,000 per year is due to reach its climax, with a vote by MPs and plans for student protests.
The coalition government, facing its first major rebellion, wants to limit the scale of backbench opposition to plans to almost treble fees.
More than a dozen Liberal Democrat MPs are expected to vote against the move.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Simon Hughes has said he will abstain or even rebel against the government.
The vote in the House of Commons on far-reaching changes to higher education funding will be the culmination of weeks of political divisions and student protests.
Liberal Democrat MPs have been under intense pressure – after their election pledge to vote against any fee increase.
Party leader Nick Clegg, who has become a target for student anger, has said that all Lib Dem ministers will vote in favour of the plan to raise fees.
Meanwhile his own party’s youth wing is holding last-ditch talks to persuade Lib Dem MPs to vote against the fee rise.
In an attempt to bolster support, ministers announced further concessions on repayment thresholds which would make the fee package more generous to students.
However, Mr Hughes said: “I have a duty to listen to my local party members and my supporters in my constituency, and they have asked me, on this occasion, to rebel against and break the coalition agreement.
“They believe that’s important for our community and important given where the Liberal Party traditionally has been against tuition fees.”
Labour and Conservative leaders clashed angrily over the fees proposals.
David Cameron accused the Labour party of “rank hypocrisy” for opposing the rise in fees – while Ed Miliband said the university plans were in “chaos”.
The package of measures would see fees rising to an upper limit of £9,000 per year – with requirements for universities to protect access for poorer students if they charge more than £6,000 per year.
The proposals to raise fees have triggered a wave of student and school pupil protests, with a march last month leading to an attack on the Conservative headquarters in Millbank.
Dozens of universities have been occupied by students – with students in five more universities occupying buildings this week.
For the first time, there have also been occupations of schools by pupils.
Students are threatening to “shut down London” in a day of protests.
Aaron Porter, president of the National Union of Students, urged MPs to “do the honourable thing and vote down these damaging proposals”.
“Students are now descending on Westminster to ensure that promises to voters are kept and they are not sold down the river,” said Mr Porter.
As well as protests planned by the NUS, there are radical groups planning demonstrations, with “flashmobs” organised on social networking websites.
There has been no consensus within the university sector about the fees deal.
The university lecturers’ union has backed student protesters – while university vice chancellors have been split over whether to support or oppose the fees plan.
The proposals to raise fees would apply to students in England. Welsh students will not pay the higher rate of fees, even at universities in England. In Scotland there are no tuition fees – and Northern Ireland has still to decide how it will respond to any fee rise in England.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The government is to pick up the cost of providing security guards at Jewish faith schools in England amid concerns about anti-semitic threats to pupils.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Westminster will be the scene of the tuition fees vote and student protests
The controversy over raising tuition fees in England to £9,000 per year is due to reach its climax, with a vote by MPs and plans for student protests.
The coalition government, facing its first major rebellion, wants to limit the scale of backbench opposition to plans to almost treble fees.
More than a dozen Liberal Democrat MPs are expected to vote against the move.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Simon Hughes has said he will abstain or even rebel against the government.
The vote in the House of Commons on far-reaching changes to higher education funding will be the culmination of weeks of political divisions and student protests.
Liberal Democrat MPs have been under intense pressure – after their election pledge to vote against any fee increase.
Party leader Nick Clegg, who has become a target for student anger, has said that all Lib Dem ministers will vote in favour of the plan to raise fees.
Meanwhile his own party’s youth wing is holding last-ditch talks to persuade Lib Dem MPs to vote against the fee rise.
In an attempt to bolster support, ministers announced further concessions on repayment thresholds which would make the fee package more generous to students.
However, Mr Hughes said: “I have a duty to listen to my local party members and my supporters in my constituency, and they have asked me, on this occasion, to rebel against and break the coalition agreement.
“They believe that’s important for our community and important given where the Liberal Party traditionally has been against tuition fees.”
Labour and Conservative leaders clashed angrily over the fees proposals.
David Cameron accused the Labour party of “rank hypocrisy” for opposing the rise in fees – while Ed Miliband said the university plans were in “chaos”.
The package of measures would see fees rising to an upper limit of £9,000 per year – with requirements for universities to protect access for poorer students if they charge more than £6,000 per year.
The proposals to raise fees have triggered a wave of student and school pupil protests, with a march last month leading to an attack on the Conservative headquarters in Millbank.
Dozens of universities have been occupied by students – with students in five more universities occupying buildings this week.
For the first time, there have also been occupations of schools by pupils.
Students are threatening to “shut down London” in a day of protests.
Aaron Porter, president of the National Union of Students, urged MPs to “do the honourable thing and vote down these damaging proposals”.
“Students are now descending on Westminster to ensure that promises to voters are kept and they are not sold down the river,” said Mr Porter.
As well as protests planned by the NUS, there are radical groups planning demonstrations, with “flashmobs” organised on social networking websites.
There has been no consensus within the university sector about the fees deal.
The university lecturers’ union has backed student protesters – while university vice chancellors have been split over whether to support or oppose the fees plan.
The proposals to raise fees would apply to students in England. Welsh students will not pay the higher rate of fees, even at universities in England. In Scotland there are no tuition fees – and Northern Ireland has still to decide how it will respond to any fee rise in England.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Nick Clegg: “I am not going to apologise for this for one minute”
Lib Dem MPs face a day of pressure ahead of the Commons vote on plans to raise the cap on university tuition fees in England.
Protesters plan a day of action as Nick Clegg seeks to minimise the damage from a three-way split among his MPs.
Lib Dem MPs have been targeted by students over a pre-election pledge to oppose any rise.
Mr Clegg says all Lib Dem ministers will back the plans but two former leaders say they will oppose them.
The proposals would raise the ceiling on annual tuition fees to £9,000 – although the government says that would only apply in “exceptional circumstances” where universities meet “much tougher conditions on widening participation and fair access”.
The “basic threshold” would be up to £6,000 a year, up from the current £3,290, and would be introduced for the 2012-13 academic year.
The proposal is the government’s response to the independent review of higher education funding by former BP chief Lord Browne, who recommended lifting the cap on the tuition fees completely.
It has provoked an angry response from many students and lecturers – leading to large-scale protests in central London, some of which have turned violent.
Protesters have particularly targeted Lib Dem MPs, who signed a pledge before the election, organised by the National Union of Students, to oppose any increase in tuition fees during this parliament.
Labour say they will oppose the plans – as will several Lib Dem MPs including former party leaders Charles Kennedy and Sir Menzies Campbell and at least two Conservative MPs – David Davis and Julian Lewis.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Simon Hughes told BBC Newsnight he would at least abstain on the vote – but said he had been asked by his local party to consider voting against the plans and he would “reflect” on that request overnight.
Newsnight’s political editor Michael Crick said the vote was getting tighter – but he thought the government would still win.
There have been suggestions that up to 20 Lib Dems and 10 Conservatives could rebel – which would not be enough to defeat the government.
It had been thought Chris Huhne, the Lib Dem Energy Secretary, had been called back from the climate summit in Cancun.
The Lib Dems say Labour refused a “pairing” deal – where one of their MPs would agree to miss the vote to cancel out Mr Huhne’s absence.
However another Lib Dem MP, Martin Horwood, will also remain in Cancun – he had said he would consider voting against the fees package so he and Mr Huhne effectively cancel each other out. Conservative climate minister Greg Barker will return to Westminster for the vote.
Nick Clegg and David Cameron took to the airwaves on Wednesday to defend their plans.
Mr Clegg told the BBC: “I massively regret, in politics as in life, saying you are going to do something and then find that you can’t.”
But he added: “I have worked flat out, with Vince Cable, David Cameron and others, to make sure that in these difficult times when there isn’t very much money, other people are having to make sacrifices, what we’re asking of graduates is fair, is sustainable and is progressive.”
And the prime minister told an audience in London the government could not “stick with the status quo” as the current funding system was “unsustainable, uncompetitive and unfair” and did not provide enough money to support the huge increase in university students.
David Cameron: ‘Graduates should make a contribution but only if they are successful’
But in angry exchanges in the Commons, Labour leader Ed Miliband said the government was “pulling the ladder” out from under poorer students, slashing public funding for universities and “loading the cost onto students and their families”.
He challenged Mr Cameron to explain why he was forcing English students to pay “the highest fees of any public university system in the industrialised world”.
“The most sensible thing is to go away, think again and come up with a better proposal,” he urged the prime minister.
The exchange followed an article in the Times in which Mr Miliband’s shadow chancellor Alan Johnson, who once opposed a graduate tax, said he now believed there was a “strong case” for one.
Ahead of Thursday’s vote, ministers offered concessions designed to win over waivering Lib Dem backbenchers – the party’s ministers will all vote in favour.
They announced that the salary threshold at which graduates start to repay fees will be uprated each year in line with earnings from 2016 – not just every five years, as had been planned.
Other concessions included uprating the existing £15,000 repayment level by inflation from 2012 and enabling part-time students to apply for student loans if they study for a quarter of the year, rather than a third as planned.
Mr Clegg has said any Lib Dem parliamentary private secretaries – MPs who provide support and advice to ministers – who voted against the plans would find it “difficult to carry on” in the unpaid role.
In the Commons on Wednesday evening Labour’s Hilary Benn said government attempts to limit Thursday’s debate to five hours were “outrageous”.
SNP MP Pete Wishart suggested Scottish and Northern Irish MPs would be unable to stay late for the vote because of the weather and travelling conditions.
Labour said it would back a cross-party amendment to the tuition fees motion calling for the decision to be delayed until after the government has consulted more widely.
Shadow Business Secretary John Denham called on MPs to back the amendment: “If the amendment falls we hope that MPs from all parties will join us in blocking the legislation.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
