Light bedrooms 'link to obesity'

By James GallagherHealth and science reporter

Sleeping in a room with too much light has been linked to an increased risk of piling on the pounds, a study shows.

A team at the Institute of Cancer Research in London found women had larger waistlines if their bedroom was "light enough to see across" at night.

However, they caution there is not enough evidence to advise people to buy thicker curtains or turn off lights.

The study of 113,000 women was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

The women were asked to rate the amount of light in their bedrooms at night as:

• Light enough to read
• Light enough to see across the room, but not read
• Light enough to see your hand in front of you, but not across the room
• Too dark to see your hand or you wear a mask

Their answers were compared to several measures of obesity. Body Mass Index, waist-to-hip ratio and waist circumference were all higher in women with lighter rooms.

Prof Anthony Swerdlow, from the Institute of Cancer Research, told the BBC: "In this very large group of people there is an association between reported light exposure at night and overweight and obesity.

"But there is not sufficient evidence to know if making your room darker would make any difference to your weight.

"There might be other explanations for the association, but the findings are intriguing enough to warrant further scientific investigation."

Body Clock

One possible explanation is that the light is disrupting the body clock, which stems from our evolutionary past when we were active when it was light in the day and resting when it was dark at night.

Light alters mood, physical strength and even the way we process food in a 24-hour cycle.

Artificial light is known to disrupt the body clock by delaying the production of the sleep hormone melatonin.

Continue reading the main story

Prof Derk-Jan Dijk, from the Surrey Sleep Centre, said there would be no harm in trying to make bedrooms darker.

He told the BBC: "People in general are not aware of the light present in their bedroom, I think people should assess their bedroom and see how easy it would be to make it darker."

Street lights, some alarm clocks and standby lights on electrical equipment such as televisions could light a room, he said.

"Overall this study points to the importance of darkness," he concluded.

Cancer

The study was funded by Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the findings emerged from a long-term study to understand the risk factors for breast cancer. Obesity is known to increase the odds of the disease.

Dr Matthew Lam, from the charity, commented: "It's too early to suggest that sleeping in the dark will help prevent obesity, a known risk factor for breast cancer, but the association is certainly interesting.

"Whilst we are learning more and more each day about the environmental, genetic and lifestyle factors that affect breast cancer risk, it is not yet possible to predict who will get breast cancer, and for women who have been diagnosed with the disease, we can't yet say what caused it."

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Sudan husband's hope for wife's death sentence appeal

Daniel Wani visited his children on Wednesday at the prison near Khartoum

The husband of a woman facing the death penalty in Sudan for abandoning her religious faith has told the BBC he is hopeful an appeal against the sentence for apostasy will be successful.

Daniel Wani said Meriam Ibrahim was well when he saw her on Wednesday a day after she gave birth in prison.

According to Islamic law, she can nurse her baby daughter for two years before the sentence is carried out.

Born to a Muslim father, she married Mr Wani, a Christian, in 2011.

Sudan has a majority Muslim population. Islamic law has been in force there since the 1980s.

Even though Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag, 27, was brought up as an Orthodox Christian, the authorities consider her to be a Muslim.

At her trial earlier in May in the capital, Khartoum, the judge also sentenced her to 100 lashes for adultery because her marriage to a Christian man was not valid under Islamic law.

'Love story'

Mr Wani, who is a US citizen, said he was delighted to see his new daughter - and mother and baby were both doing well.

"It's very incredible. I'm so happy," he told the BBC's Newsday programme.

But he said he was most concerned about his 20-month-old son who has been living with his mother in prison since February.

The judge ruled that Mr Wani was not allowed custody of the boy as the marriage was not valid.

"His attitude has changed a lot," Mr Wani said of his son.

"He used to be a happy boy. When I went there, he just looked at me. No smile," he said.

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag will be allowed to nurse her daughter for up to two years

"Sometimes really he is in a bad mood. Every time when I went there, he just wants to come home with me."

Born in South Sudan before it became independent from Sudan, Mr Wani went to the US in 1998 at the height of the civil war,

He met Ms Ibrahim in 2011 on a visit to Sudan and they were married at the main church in Khartoum.

"There is a love story between them," their lawyer Elshareef Ali told the BBC.

Mr Wani, who is in a wheelchair, said he was angry about his wife's imprisonment.

She had to give birth with heavy chains on her legs, although when he saw her in the office of the prison, her shackles were removed, he said.

Ms Ibrahim was raised as an Orthodox Christian, her mother's religion, because her father, a Muslim, was reportedly absent during her childhood.

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag said that as she was brought up a Christian, she had not committed apostasy

Mr Wani said it was his wife's right to choose her own religion.

"She grew up... with her mother, went to the church and I don't think that means that she converted from Islam to Christianity."

According to their lawyer, Mr Wani and his wife were first arrested in September 2013 for adultery - and were allowed out on bail.

The court added the charge of apostasy in February 2014 when Ms Ibrahim said she was a Christian. She was then taken into custody.

There has been international condemnation of the death sentence.

Correspondents say they are rarely carried out in Sudan.

The sentence of 100 lashes for adultery will reportedly be carried out when she has recovered from giving birth.

---------------------------

"Every time when I went there, he just wants to come home with me”

Daniel Wani about his son

She.. went to the church and I don't think that means that she converted from Islam to Christianity”

Daniel Wani

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'Almost 2,000' killed by Syria barrel bombs in 2014

Ian Pannell reports from the streets of Aleppo, where a boy was pulled from the rubble after a barrel bomb attack

Almost 2,000 people have been killed by Syrian government air attacks in the northern city of Aleppo so far this year, an activist group says.

The dead included 283 women and 567 children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

The Syrian air force has used so-called "barrel bombs" dropped from aircraft to try to put down a rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad.

Aleppo has seen fierce fighting since a rebel offensive in the area in 2012.

The UK-based SOHR said 1,963 people had been killed in the city - Syria's largest - and the surrounding area since January.

The government has used air and ground forces to drive the rebels back, but they remain in control of some areas to the east of Aleppo.

Crude bombs

The SOHR - which has a network of activists around the country reporting on the violence - says more than 162,000 people have been killed in the three-year conflict.

Analysis: Jim Muir, BBC News, Beirut

The barrels, packed with explosives, are a crude weapon, rolled out of helicopters, often from high altitude.

They're extremely inaccurate; they cause a huge blast and massive damage, often devastating entire quarters in the densely-built-up areas of Aleppo controlled by rebel forces.

Underlining the complexity of the conflict now going on in Syria, the Syrian observatory has also reported that 15 Kurdish civilians, including seven children and three women, were summarily executed by fighters from the extremist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), after they overran a village in the north-east of the country.

The use of shrapnel-packed barrel bombs in Aleppo and elsewhere has been condemned by international human rights groups.

The bombs are dropped from helicopters and cannot be guided or controlled.

Fighting between government forces and rebel groups has left much of the city of Aleppo in ruins

A BBC team witnessed the effects of the weapons on Syrian civilians in rebel-held areas of Aleppo in April.

Last week government forces broke a year-long rebel siege of Aleppo's central prison.

Correspondents say the government breakthrough has cut off a major supply route for the rebels from Turkey.

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India gang rapes: Police sacked over hanged girls

Villagers accuse the local police of 'caste' discrimination

Two police officers in India have been sacked for refusing to help search for two missing girls who were later found gang-raped and hanged, officials say.

They were also charged with criminal conspiracy, police said, adding that three people had been arrested so far.

The government has pledged to set up a fast-track court to prosecute the crime, which took place earlier this week in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Alleged police inaction sparked outrage in the teenagers' village.

The father of one victim told the BBC he was ridiculed by police when he sought help in finding his missing daughter.

He said that when policemen found out he was from a lower caste, they "refused to look for my girl".

Indian media reacts to hangings

Students in New Delhi held angry protests after the girls' killings

The incident has received top coverage on India's main TV channels such as NDTV, Times Now and CNN-IBN.

"Uttar Pradesh Rape shockers", reads a ticker on NDTV, which accuses the local police of being "complicit" with the attackers and quotes relatives of the two girls saying they have "no faith" they'll receive justice.

"Lawless in Uttar Pradesh" reads a top headline on CNN-IBN, which has started its own campaign using the hashtag #StopThisShame.

"UP: 3 Rapes in 48Hrs" is the lead on the Times Now channel, which reports the growing number of rape incidents in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

"Outrage" is the word used on the front pages of several leading English-language newspapers, including The Hindu and The Indian Express.

In an editorial, The Times of India lays the blame on the government of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Singh, saying the hangings "exposes the state's slide into medieval lawlessness".

Source: BBC Monitoring

Most of the people in the village are farmers or farm labourers and many live in poverty
'Thorough investigation'

Authorities said on Friday that they were still looking for two other suspects.

Senior police official Atul Saxena earlier announced there would be a "thorough investigation" into the allegations of caste discrimination by police.

Divisions between India's castes run deep, and violence is often used by upper castes to instil fear in lower castes, correspondents say.

Although both the victim and the accused belonged to a caste grouping known as "Other Backward Classes", the victims were lower in that hierarchy.

The girls, two cousins aged 14 and 16, went missing in Badaun district on Tuesday night. They had apparently gone out to relieve themselves as they had no toilet at home.

Their bodies were discovered the following day. A post-mortem examination confirmed multiple sexual assaults and death due to hanging.

Campaigners have highlighted the lack of sanitation in rural areas as being a risk to women's security as well as their health, as they are often attacked when having to go out to use the toilet, particularly at night.

Scrutiny of sexual violence in India has grown since the 2012 gang rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus.

The government tightened laws on sexual violence last year after widespread protests following the attack.

Fast-track courts were brought to the fore to deal with rape and the death penalty was also brought in for the most extreme cases.

Some women's groups argue that the low conviction rate for rape should be challenged with more effective policing rather than stiffer sentences.

Rape cases that have shocked India

• 23 January 2014: Thirteen men held in West Bengal in connection with the gang rape of a woman, allegedly on orders of village elders who objected to her relationship with a man
• 4 April 2014: A court sentences three men to hang for raping a 23-year-old photojournalist in Mumbai last year
• 15 January 2014: A Danish woman is allegedly gang raped after losing her way near her hotel in Delhi
• 17 September 2013 : Five youths held in Assam for allegedly gang-raping a 10-year-old girl
• 4 June 2013: A 30-year-old American woman gang-raped in Himachal Pradesh
• 30 April 2013: A five-year-old girl dies two weeks after being raped in Madhya Pradesh
• 16 December 2012: Student gang raped on Delhi bus, sparking nationwide protests and outrage

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Valve delays Steam Machine controller to 2015

Valve said it needed more time time to perfect its controller

By Leo Kelion

Technology desk editor

Valve has delayed the launch of its Steam Machine video games PCs until next year at the earliest.

The US-based firm said it needed more time to work on the system's controllers, which feature two haptic-feedback trackpads.

The announcement is also likely to impact the 14 third-party manufacturers planning to sell their own Steam Machine hardware.

However, one industry watcher suggested Valve had taken the right decision.

"It is targeting a very demanding demographic with the Steam Machine platform, and the controller is one of the key features designed to address the impression that PC gaming can be slightly inaccessible," said Ed Barton, a gaming analyst at consultants Ovum.

"It's a very ambitious concept to try to replicate the accuracy of a mouse input with the controller's two circular touchpads - and if it doesn't work, the platform would likely struggle to get off the ground."

Alienware, Alternate, Digital Storm and Origin PC have all announced Steam Machines

Living-room games

Valve is best known for developing games including Half Life, Dota 2 and Left 4 Dead, as well as having created Steam, a service that includes the bestselling marketplace for PC games and contains vibrant community forums.

The company, based in Bellevue, Washington state, announced last September that it also intended to create its own games-focused Linux-based operating system, called SteamOS, in addition to a few hundred prototype machines to test it on.

It said the machine was intended to be plugged into a TV and used with its new controller that would provide vibration feedback to deliver "in-game information about speed, boundaries, thresholds, textures, action confirmations, or any other events about which game designers want players to be aware".

The idea, it said, was to take PC gaming into the living room in 2014 - a place previously dominated by consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. Others would ultimately make the machines sold to the public.

However, a blog by developer Eric Hope has now asked consumers to be patient while the firm continued to work on the project.

"We're now using wireless prototype controllers to conduct live playtests, with everyone from industry professionals to die-hard gamers to casual gamers," he wrote.

"It's generating a ton of useful feedback, and it means we'll be able to make the controller a lot better.

"Of course, it's also keeping us pretty busy making all those improvements. Realistically, we're now looking at a release window of 2015, not 2014."

Manufacturers react

The blog refers to delays to "our in-development Steam Machines", but it appears that third-party Steam Machines will also be postponed until the controller is available.

Valve announced it had added buttons to its controller design in March

Several of the companies involved had already announced provisional specifications, including the amounts of memory, types of processor and prices they intended to charge.

"We support the mindset to launch Steam Machine with the best possible experience," Kevin Wasielewski, chief executive of Origin PC, one of the manufacturers involved, told the BBC.

"Unfortunately that means no Steam Machine in 2014."

Anton Nilsson, purchasing manager at Swedish PC-maker Webhallen added: "Our plans for Steam Machines will of course also be pushed to a later date... We also think that the controller could use some more work so we're happy to hear that Valve is spending even more time perfecting it."

Lost advantage

There are currently 474 Linux-compatible games available on the Steam platform, and there had been an expectation that Valve would announce further high-profile titles to coincide with the launch.

Mr Barton said the delay could make that tally seem less impressive.

"If the Steam Machines were coming out at the end of 2014 you could argue they would have a significant advantage over the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Wii U in terms of the sheer number of games that would be available," he said.

"Coming out a year later not only means more of those consoles will have been sold, but also presumably that they will have more exclusives and cheaper games available to them.

"But Valve would argue that it needs to get its hardware right or it wouldn't be competitive anyway."

However, the news does appear to have frustrated some potential buyers.

"I agree that if they need more time to get a finished product, they should indeed take it, but going from early 2014 to mid 2014 to Q4 2014 and then to 2015?" wrote one gamer on Valve's Steam Universe forum.

"I've been a PC gamer for about nine years and I'm a fan of gaming in the living room, replaceable parts, high-end specs, so the notion of a PC console is exciting, but I literally would've bought a console for my entertainment area instead if I knew the timeline would just be constantly delayed."

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'First drafts' of human protein catalogue published

Proteins (in green) are translated from the intermediate molecule RNA (pink) which is copied from our genes

The first two attempts at a database of every single human protein - the "proteome" - have been made public.

This builds on our knowledge of the genome by showing which genes actually produce proteins in which tissues.

One team in Germany and one spanning the US and India have published their proteome maps in the journal Nature, and on searchable, public websites.

Some of the 17-to-18,000 reported proteins arise from stretches of DNA previously thought to be "non-coding".

Along the vast length of DNA packed inside each of our cells, our genes are the sections which contain the instructions, or code, for making proteins.

"While we have a good idea of what the genome looks like, we didn't know how many of those potentially 20,000 protein-coding genes would actuallymake protein," said Prof Bernhard Kuester, who led the German team at the University of Technology, Munich.

Unexpected results

To find out, the researchers extracted all of the protein from many different samples of human tissues, as well as a number of cell lines. The proteins in that purified mixture were then chopped into small pieces and a technique called mass spectrometry revealed the sequence of amino acids forming each of those pieces.

With a lot of computing power and patience, these batches of protein fragments can be compared with the human genome to make a map, showing which genes in which tissues are "expressed" and producing protein.

To index all the proteins that make us human, researchers used a bank of samples including adult tissues, foetal tissues and numerous cell lines

"This is the first inventory, if you like," Prof Kuester told BBC news, "like a dozen years ago with the first draft of the human genome."

And just like the results of the Human Genome Project, these data contain some surprises.

Both groups found hundreds of unexpected proteins, produced by fragments of ancient genes (called "pseudogenes") or by lengths of DNA that were not thought to be genes at all.

As well as the newcomers, there were notable absences. "We have good reason to believe that there are hundreds of known, annotated genes that perhaps are redundant," said Prof Kuester.

The team based in the US and India, led by Prof Akhilesh Pandey of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, found evidence for only 84% of the proteins that might be predicted from looking at the genome.

Beyond genetics

Both teams are making their findings available online

Prof Pandey told the BBC it was important to study the proteins themselves, as well as the genes that encode them.

He offered an example of how a researcher, investigating a particular gene, might use one of the new databases: "They can look at the expression and get clues about what it could be doing. For example if a protein is expressed in the foetal gut and not the adult gut, then they might think of some sort of developmental process."

The tissue-by-tissue breakdown could also help scientists trying to figure out the actions and side effects of drugs. By comparing the proteome of various cancer cell lines, Prof Kuester and his team have already identified certain clusters of proteins that could increase or decrease sensitivity to cancer drugs.

Dr Kevin Mills, who uses proteomics to study rare diseases at the UCL Institute of Child Health, agrees that it is crucial to look "beyond genomics" at protein levels and how they vary.

"Genetics can't tell us everything," said Dr Mills, who was not involved in either study. "This is really important. We're not static - we're fluid and dynamic and our proteome changes continually."

Although they had seen each other's work at conferences, both Prof Pandey and Prof Kuester told BBC News they had "no idea" they were headed towards publishing simultaneously. They spoke on the phone last week after discovering that both of their studies would grace the cover of Nature.

"We never saw this as a race to be first," said Prof Kuester. "My interpretation is that when the time is right, somebody's going to just do it. And perhaps two people are going to do it!"

Prof Pandey compared today's joint publication to the first draft of the human genome, which was announced by two different teams in February 2001.

Prof Pandey (centre) and his team spent two years generating and analysing their data

"Although both groups came up with similar numbers of genes, the actual list was different," he said. "We are likely to have less of that confusion, but we are definitely going to benefit from putting the two data sets together."

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Ebola outbreak: Medics travel to eastern Sierra Leone

The epicentre of the Ebola outbreak has been in south-eastern Guinea

International medical aid teams are to arrive in eastern Sierra Leone to try to deal with an outbreak of the deadly and highly contagious Ebola virus.

The experts are from the World Health Organization and the Doctors Without Borders charity.

This comes after six suspected Ebola patients were taken out of hospitals by their families, defying doctors.

One of the patients later died amid fears that the virus could spread, a local health official said.

Nearly 200 people have died of Ebola in West Africa since an outbreak was first reported in Guinea in March.

There is no cure or vaccine for Ebola - one of the world's deadliest viruses.

Ebola virus disease (EVD)

• Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
• Fatality rate can reach 90%
• Incubation period is two to 21 days
• There is no vaccine or cure
• Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery
• Fruit bats are considered to be the natural host of the virus

But people have a better chance of surviving if it is identified early and they receive medical attention.

Ebola can kill up to 90% of those infected and is passed on through contact with the fluids of infected people or animals, such as urine, sweat and blood.

'Aggressive' removal

The medical teams are expected to arrive in a remote part of Sierra Leone later on Thursday.

Just touching the body of an infected person can cause deadly transmission, so the experts will be covered from head to foot in protective clothing, the BBC's Mark Doyle reports.

But they are facing another obstacle even before they start work, following the removal from a clinic of the six suspected patients.

Dr Amara Jambai, the director of disease prevention and control at Sierra Leone's health ministry, told the BBC that staff at the clinic in Koindu town in eastern Sierra Leone had tried to stop the patients from being removed.

However, the families ad been "aggressive" as they took their relatives away, he said.

The families apparently feared their loved ones would die a lonely death.

But they also appear not to have understood the grave danger they have put themselves and their communities in by trying to take care of the patients themselves.

The relatives' love for their sick relatives may end up killing them all, our correspondent adds.

Dr Jambai said two people had so far died of Ebola in Sierra Leone, and not four as previously reported.

Guinea has been worst-affected, with 258 suspected and confirmed cases of Ebola, including 174 deaths - 146 of which have been laboratory-confirmed positive.

In Liberia, there have been 12 suspected cases, with nine deaths.

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Tesco and China Resources Enterprise reach retail deal

Tesco has been to tap into China's fast growing consumer market

Tesco has finalised a deal with the state-run China Resources Enterprise (CRE) to create the largest food retailer in China.

The joint venture will combine Tesco's 131 outlets in the country with CRE's almost 3,000 stores, called Vanguard.

CRE will own 80% of the new chain and Tesco will have a 20% stake.

"The partnership creates a strong platform in one of the world's largest markets," Tesco chief executive Philip Clarke said in a statement.

"We can now combine our strengths to build a profitable multichannel business, offering our customers in China the best of modern retail."

Asian growth

According to figures from research group IGD, China is the world's biggest market for food and groceries with an annual value of more than one trillion dollars.

And the market is forecast to grow by 50% over the next three years.

Tesco, the biggest supermarket chain in the UK, has been keen to tap into this potential, and has been operating in the country since 2004.

The firm has also been eyeing the Indian market - which is forecast to witness rapid growth in the coming years.

Earlier this year, it announced a joint venture with Trent Limited, part of India's Tata Group, which operates the Star Bazaar retail business in India.

Tesco said it would invest around £85m in the joint venture.

Once the venture has been finalised it will operate 12 stores retailing a range of products including groceries and home care products.

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Ukraine PM Yatsenyuk in Russia border demand

Donetsk resident: "It's war, it's civil war in my town"

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has called on Russia to control its border to stop "terrorists" from crossing into his territory.

Mr Yatsenyuk said Kiev could solve the crisis quickly if Moscow stopped meddling in the situation.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that Kiev's policies were pushing Ukraine into "fratricidal war".

Earlier this week rebels and government forces were embroiled in some of the worst fighting of the crisis so far.

The separatists say they lost up to 100 fighters as they tried to seize Donetsk airport from pro-Kiev forces on Monday.

Ukraine's interior ministry says the military is now in full control of the airport.

On Wednesday, gunfire was reported in Donetsk city and rebels attacked a military base in the city of Luhansk causing casualties on both sides.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk (R) has held talks with Angela Merkel during a two-day visit to Germany

Pro-Russian militants continued to occupy parts of Donetsk, where rallies were held on Wednesday

Speaking on a visit to Germany, Mr Yatsenyuk said the situation in the east was deteriorating and Russia's involvement was causing huge difficulties.

"A number of trucks full of live ammunition, full of Russian-trained guerrillas crossed the Russian border into Ukraine," he said.

"We ask Russia and Putin to block the border to Ukraine. If Russia is out of this game we can handle this situation in a week."

Meanwhile, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said it had re-established contact with a monitoring team it reported lost in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, but it continued to refer to the group as "detained" and their fate is unclear.

Gas claims

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called newly elected President Petro Poroshenko to congratulate him on receiving a "strong mandate" to govern after a landslide election victory on Sunday.

Mr Poroshenko said he would hold direct talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as soon as possible to defuse the crisis.

His office also said he would seek to sign a trade deal with the EU as soon as possible - a move likely to anger Moscow.

The election had been criticised because many in the east were unable to vote as a result of the unrest.

But analysts say the wide margin of Mr Poroshenko's victory has bolstered the confidence of Ukrainian officials in their dealings with Moscow.

On Tuesday, Mr Yatsenyuk denied Moscow's long-standing claim that Ukraine owed billions of dollars in unpaid gas revenues.

The prime minister said that in fact Russia's state-owed Gazprom owed Ukraine $1bn (£600m) in compensation for natural gas seized in the annexation of Crimea.

Gazprom's chief executive Alexei Miller said on Wednesday that Ukraine had used $1.7bn worth of gas in May alone, and would owe $5.2bn by 7 June.

He demanded pre-payment for June's gas supply, and threatened to restrict exports if money was not transferred by 3 June.

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