Classic fish

Conservationists often refer to the bluefin tuna as the “tiger of the sea”, but in truth a mature bluefin outweighs, outgrows and outpaces even the heftiest wild cat.
Bluefin can weigh up to 1,400lbs (635kg) and measure 15ft (5m) long, and can sustain bursts of speed up to 60 mph (100 km/h) in pursuit of prey.
Warm-blooded, they migrate across oceans, and females produce up to 30 million eggs each spawning season.
Bluefin tuna have fascinated and fed humans for ages. The first evidence of bluefin fishing in the Mediterranean dates to the 7th Millennium BCE when the Phoenicians established fisheries using hand-lines and primitive seine nets.
Aristotle studied tuna in his History of Animals, written in 350 BCE, and contended that the enormous fish gorged for two years before bursting from overeating.
Four hundred years later, Pliny the Elder recommended eating tuna to treat ulcers, suggesting the neck, belly and throat as the finest pieces that must be eaten fresh even though “they cause severe fits of flatulence”.
But it wasn’t until the late 20th Century that that tuna became a global business.
In recent years, sushi and sashimi have exploded in popularity in Japan and around the world, and consumers tout the fatty flesh of the bluefin as the most prized meat.
Purse seine ships, which close drawstring nets around schooling fish, became larger and more sophisticated, and fattening cages dotted the seas starting in 1996.
These cages, which can measure 50m (165ft) across, may represent the biggest threat to bluefin survival.
Tuna, often juvenile, are captured and dumped in the cages – or “ranches” – for months to fatten up, with all the associated problems of aquaculture: disease, waste and overfishing of the smaller fish used to feed the bluefin.
Fishing for giant bluefin has become hugely profitable.
In the 1960s, its meat sold in the US for seven cents a pound. This season, the first bluefin sold in Taiwan netted $105 a pound.

Police are searching for a man who made suspicious approaches to children in Leicestershire, trying to tempt them into his vehicle.
Officers said the man had been driving a large people carrier-type vehicle each time he approached either single or groups of young boys.
In each case the youngsters refused to get into the vehicle in the Melton Mowbray area and told their parents.
Police said the driver was black and aged about 30-years-old
The car the man was driving was described by the youngsters as a dark-coloured people carrier, possibly blue, purple or black.
Sgt Lee Morris said: “We are appealing to anyone who thinks they may have witnessed the incidents or who has also been approached by the man to call us.
“The man’s motive is not clear, he has not made any attempt to touch or grab the children.
“We have contacted local schools to warn them about the incidents and they have since updated parents and pupils.”

The recession has had little impact on humanity’s over-consumption of resources, says a report.
The New Economics Foundation (Nef) calculates the day each year when the world goes into “ecological debt.”
This is the date by which humanity has used the quantity of natural resources that ought to last an entire year if used at a sustainable rate.
This year, “ecological debt day” falls on 25 September – just one day later than in 2008.
According to Nef, this means that the biggest recession for nearly a century has made very little difference to global consumption.
The report, entitled The Consumption Explosion: the Third UK Interpendence Day Report, asserts that the overall trend of our collective ecological footprint is deeply negative, with humanity still environmentally over-extending itself to a dangerous degree.

The Taliban showed a similar disdain for television, music and cinema and disapproved of girls aged 10 and over from going to school.
Pakistan has repeatedly denied that it is the architect of the Taliban enterprise.
But there is little doubt that many Afghans who initially joined the movement were educated in madrassas (religious schools) in Pakistan.
Pakistan was also one of only three countries, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which recognised the Taliban when they were in power in Afghanistan from the mid-1990s until 2001.
It was also the last country to break diplomatic ties with the Taliban.
The attention of the world was drawn to the Taliban in Afghanistan following the attacks on the World Trade Centre in September 2001

Many of those forced to move have colourful stories.
Liaqat was a barber in the small town of Barikot. He was doing well for his family until recently.
But a few months back his business closed down as shaving was declared an unacceptable business. He had no intention of leaving Barikot.
But as the military action started and the firing of guns grew louder – along with the shrieks and howls of terrified people – it became impossible for him and his family to live there any longer.
Children had become hysterical – crying endlessly – and everyone was in a trauma not knowing when the shells would hit them.
Like many others, he decided on the spur of the moment to leave as he could not take it anymore.
He did not have a penny in his pocket. His neighbour helped him move out with his family in his old car.
After a seven-hour gruelling journey he ended up in our transit centre at Jalala.
He was informed where he needed to go to get his registration, which camp would have a place for him and where the distribution point was for food and medical supplies.
For these small mercies, Liaqat was relieved. He said he had no idea where he was heading once he decided to flee for and his journey had been in deep apprehension over the future.

Fighting in Yemen is reported to be continuing despite a conditional ceasefire called by the government in its conflict with northern Shia rebels.
The government had called the ceasefire to coincide with the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The UN has appealed to both sides to allow humanitarian corridors to be opened so that aid can be delivered to those displaced by the fighting.
About 150,000 people have been displaced in the five-year conflict.
On Saturday, statements from both the military and the rebels accused the other side of continuing attacks in spite of the ceasefire.
The combat area has been cut off from journalists, and correspondents say it has been hard to verify conflicting reports from both sides.

An international team of researchers studied 493 Israeli families who had had a previous pregnancy which was affected by NTD and 516 families from the Ukraine who had had a pregnancy affected by Down’s.
Their findings were published in The Lancet.
It was found there were more than five times the number of pregnancies affected by Down’s syndrome, a total of 11 in 1,492 pregnancies in the NTD compared with 1.87 expected for women of the same age.
There was also an increase in NTD cases in the families at a higher risk of Down’s syndrome.
Seven cases were seen in 1,847 pregnancies, compared with an expected incidence of 1.37.
Writing in The Lancet, the researchers from Israel, the Ukraine and the UK recommended taking extra folic acid before conception, and in the first two months of pregnancy.
They added: “The risks seen in this study could be helpful in genetic counselling, including that given during antenatal screening for birth defects.

DNA tests have proven beyond doubt that Indonesia’s most-wanted Islamist militant Noordin Mohamed Top is dead, police say.
The man wanted for a series of deadly attacks across the archipelago was among four killed in a raid on Thursday near Solo city in central Java.
After the raid, police had immediately identified Malaysian-born Noordin using fingerprint records.
On Saturday they said “the DNA also matches 100%”.
National police spokesman Nanan Soekarna told a news conference:
“There is no doubt that he’s Noordin M Top.”
It is not the first time Indonesian officials have claimed Noordin is dead.
In another raid in central Java in August police had initially thought they had killed the militant, only to have forensic tests prove them wrong days later.

Some dissenting voices are in evidence however on the bulletin board of the People’s Daily, where one poster suggests the money should have been spent on Chinese workers.
Below are quotes from the main papers:
After 11 years of strenuous efforts of tackling difficult problems, the Chinese have finally fulfilled their dream of flying to the Ninth Heaven, or the highest of heavens on the basis of four unmanned test flights. This effort made China become the third country, after Russia and the United States, which independently develops manned space technology. At the same time, manned space-engineering has also made China become an important member of the international space club, providing China with the motive force for sustainable development in the impending implementation of the project of probing into the moon and deep space.
This was a hero’s expedition. This was a great expedition for the Chinese nation historically… The Chinese have longed for this day for so long. The Chinese nation has waited for this moment for a millennium… ‘The five-starred red flag flutters in the wind, the victorious sounds of singing are resounding, singing of our great motherland’

“We’re going for a base on the moon,” Scott “Doc” Horowitz, Nasa’s associate administrator for exploration, said.
The agency’s deputy head, Shana Dale, is quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying that the “fundamental lunar approach” will be very different to earlier Moon missions
Nasa has elected to build a lunar outpost rather than operate brief trips to the satellite as it did in the 1960s.
Nasa is also expected to ask other countries – and businesses – to help it build the base.
The permanent base will be built near one of the two poles, as these are felt to have a moderate climate and more sunlight – essential if the base is to use solar energy.
“It’s exciting,” Shana Dale told the Reuters news agency. “We don’t know as much about the polar regions.”
According to Reuters, funds for building the lunar base will be diverted from the space shuttle programme, which is to be phased out by 2010.
After the Columbia space shuttle accident, US President George W Bush announced plans to send astronauts back to the moon by 2020.
Nasa announced in August that the Lockheed Martin Corporation will build the next US spaceship to take humans to the Moon.