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NHS patients are offered personalized cancer treatment under a pilot project to conduct genetic testing on individual tumors.
Cancer Research UK hope the project will be up to 6,000 cancer patients per year for a series of genetic defects to be analyzed.
The results will guide physicians in choosing the most effective therapy for that patient.
The charity predicts that testing may become routine within five years.
Due to be launched in the autumn, the project will examine how best to roll-out of genetic testing in the NHS.
Six centers set up around the country where the scientists will classify the patient according to the tumor specific genetic mutations they carry.
Patients will be offered drug treatment based on the genetic makeup of their cancer.
Potentially, such an approach will enable the NHS to save money by cutting the prescribing expensive treatments that are likely to work.
Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said scientists now have enough genetic markers and drugs for such tests to discover a real difference.
Cancer drugs developed in recent years specifically aimed at a genetic mutation, including breast cancer treatment Herceptin.
Routine Tests
Some genetic testing has been done in the NHS cancer patients, but provision is patchy and tumors are often tested only one mutation.
James Peach, director of the charity of stratified medicine, said they wanted a national program to build, so patients with cancer in the United Kingdom to benefit from the global genetic discoveries.
"Patients have their tumors genetically tested and receive treatment based on the evidence of what does and does not work for their type of tumor.
"The advantages for patients are clear: better treatments and avoiding unnecessary side effects. But it would allow us to investigate drug driving stratified by the inclusion of the effectiveness of certain treatments for each type of tumor."
He said the first phase of the project would be developed in collaboration with the NHS, industry and government.
Once they have proven that the approach works, the plan is to roll out the scheme for all patients.
The charity is looking for similar initiatives in the U.S. to determine which mutations to test the various forms of cancer.
Professor Mike Stratton, director of the Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said: "Discovering new cancer genes, new drug targets and new ways to predict whether patients will respond to certain therapies are accelerating, but a large challenge is to obtain the benefits of these advances for patients in the NHS.
"This initiative will form the basis for doing just that."
Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik has stressed that no plans for military action against militants in Punjab province.
His remarks came hours after he told a parliamentary committee that "Punjabi Taliban" were entrenched in the south of Punjab.
Malik said they were planning to destabilize the country.
Few Pakistani officials have acknowledged the existence of the militant bases in Punjab, despite media reports.
In recent years Pakistan has been conducting a bitter battle against militants in the north of the country.
Any suggestion that the war is now spreading to the rest of Pakistan would rise to concerns about the stability of the country - both at home and abroad.
"Effective action '
Malik's remarks come days after militants more than 90 people slain in attacks on two mosques of the Muslim minority Ahmedi community in Lahore.
The attacks are attributed to the so-called Punjabi Taliban, a loose alliance of militant groups linked to the Taliban and al Qaeda militants in northwestern tribal areas of Pakistan.
The Chief Minister Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif, accused Mr Malik of "provincialism" for his use of the term "Taliban Punjab.
This is the first time a top minister has acknowledged that the militant bases in southern Punjab province, where more than half the population of the country houses.
"No military operation is planned for the forbidden [militant] outfits in Punjab ... [but] effective measures were together [with the Punjab government] should be to eliminate them," the official APP news agency quoted him as Pakistani journalists tell Wednesday.
Earlier, while briefing a parliamentary assembly of the interior, Mr Malik said the group "Punjabi Taliban were involved in attacks in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and elsewhere in Punjab province.
He said these groups were anchored in Punjab and were more dangerous.
Most parliamentarians from southern Punjab are reluctant publicly to the existence of the militants there, presumably for reasons of personal safety to admit.
The ruling party of Punjab province, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) also tried to media reports that Taliban fighters from the province of Punjab can be hiding places to drive.
A top minister of Punjab, Rana Sanaullah, recently attracted criticism for seeking the support of a militant group, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, during a by-election in March.
A new report has confirmed what many had long suspected Indians - their country's bureaucratic system is one of the most oppressive in the world.
The Hong Kong-based group, political and economic risk consultancy, studied more than 100 business executives in 12 Asian countries.
The poll suggested India had the worst levels of red tape reduction.
Yet this seems not to have impeded performance - he's just another set of strong growth.
But for many foreign companies that success, despite rather than because of the system they face, the report says.
There has been no response to the report of the civil service.
Bureaucracy and corruption
The report ranks bureaucracies in Asia on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the worst possible score. India scored 9.41.
Frequent promises to reform the bureaucracy, the report says, have come to nothing, mainly because the bureaucracy is a power center in its own right.
Starting a business in India is incredibly hard, and enforcement of contracts can be almost impossible.
There is a strong bond, the report says, between bureaucracy and corruption - and a widespread belief that bureaucrats are selfish and very insensitive to the needs of the people they need help.
None of this will come as a surprise for most Indians, or to many within the civil service itself.
A recent survey by the Indian bureaucracy found large numbers of officials complain of undue political interference and a widespread fear that no one questioned the scheme would be transferred to obscure posts in bureaucratic backwaters.
Given the level of dissatisfaction among foreign businessmen and the Indians themselves, the political and economic risk consultancy report is an interesting question: how much better would India need to do if they were able to reduce bureaucracy?
One consequence is that it considers the inertia generated by a stifling bureaucratic system will in the medium term to prevent India, which match the growth rates of the major Asian rival China.
Emotions are running high in Turkey over the funerals of nine activists of Turkish or of Turkish origin, was killed in Israel raid on Gaza to help the fleet.
The bodies were flown from Israel to Istanbul, along with more than 450 activists, heroes welcome ".
Israel has said that there is no need for an international investigation of the incident, takes his own meet "the highest international standards".
UN Human Rights Council (HRC) voted earlier to set up an investigation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his soldiers had no choice but to stop the boat.
He argued the fleet was not to deliver humanitarian aid to Gazans, but to break the Israeli blockade.
It was a duty to defend Israel, missiles and other weapons were smuggled into Gaza to Hamas, Iran and others, "he said.
Turkey, one of the few allies in the Muslim world, Israel, recalled its ambassador after the incident on Monday.
'Barbarism and oppression'
Its president, Abdullah Gul, said relations between the two countries would "never be the same."
"This incident left a deep scar and irreparable" about relationships, told reporters in Ankara.
In a fiery speech at the airport in Istanbul, Bulent Arinc Deputy Prime Minister accused Israel of "piracy" and "barbarism and oppression."
Crowds of people, some wearing a Palestinian-style scarves, gathered in the city to meet the coffin, draped in Turkish flags, the Ottoman-era mosque-Fatih.
Funerals were held in a strongly Islamic part of town, and emotions were running high, the BBC reported Bethany Bell.
One of the bodies should be buried in Istanbul, while eight others were taken to their home towns, AFP news agency.
Turkish post-mortem examination revealed all nine of the dead had been shot, some at close range.
The dead include 19-year-old Turkish national with a U.S. passport - hit by four bullets in the head and once in the chest - a national taekwondo athlete, Turkish media say.
The bodies arrived, along with 450 activists in three aircraft leased by the Turkish Government at the Istanbul airport in the early hours of Thursday, after several hours delay.
Mr Arinc said that his government will greet the Turkish Islamic charity, the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Assistance (IHH), who played a major role in organizing the convoy - Israel charity accused of supporting terrorism.
IHH leader Bulent Yildrim said after his arrival back to Istanbul that he believed the death toll could be higher than nine, as his organization had a longer list of missing persons.
British activist Sarah Colbourne told the BBC: "I could not even count the number of ships that were in the water. It was literally bristling with ships, helicopters and gunfire. It was terrible, absolutely terrible."
Swedish author Henning Mankell, who was aboard one of the ships in the fleet, has rejected the idea that the weapons were made according to activists.
"On the ship I was on notice that the one weapon: my razor. And actually came and showed her my razor, so you can see what level it was at" the author of popular detective novels Wallander told Swedish radio.
'Double standard'
Consular staff were on hand in Istanbul to assist activists in other countries. They include 34 people who hold British passports.
Doctors in Ankara, where some of the seriously injured were taken, saying that people were treating bullet wounds. Three people are in intensive care.
Seven other activists are in serious condition and will remain in Israeli hospitals, until they move, Israeli officials say.
Another plane carrying 31 activists of the Greek, three French nationals and one American flew to Athens on Thursday shortly.
More than 100 relatives and supporters cheered and shouted pro-Palestinian slogans at the airport.
Rejection of proposed HRC investigation, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said the external demands inquiry showed a double standard against the Jewish state.
When they were Americans or Britons accused of killing civilians in Iraq or Afghanistan, said it was in the U.S. or Britain, which conducted the investigation, not an international organization.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman suggested, linked to international observers, the Israeli internal investigation.
"We have excellent lawyers ... one of whom will be willing to take, and if they want to include some sort of international members in the committee, that's okay too," he told Israel radio.
U.S., Israel's most important ally, has made it clear that it will accept an Israeli-led investigation, the BBC's Andrew North reports from Jerusalem.
New ships
Talk in Gaza is now turning to another ship on its journey across the Mediterranean Sea to try to break the blockade, the BBC's Jon Donnison reports from the area.
Rachel Corrie - the exercise of 15 people, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan Maguire - were to be part of the original fleet, but was postponed due to technical problems.
The ship could be in the region on Saturday, our correspondent reports. Israel has said it will not be allowed to dock in Gaza.
"Everyone was very angry at what happened to [the fleet]," Irish crew member Derek Graham told Reuters news agency by telephone.
"Everyone was more determined than ever to continue to Gaza."
Meanwhile, some 10,000 tons of assistance from the fleet seized by Israel was returned to the Israeli port of Ashdod after being left stranded at Gaza-Israel crossing.
The government of Hamas in Gaza refuses to accept help in the Israeli-Arab activists were released from the fleet.
The U.S. government has begun criminal and civil investigations into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Attorney General Eric Holder announced.
He would not say which companies or individuals were targeted.
Previously, BP launched a new effort to contain the leakage from the well using underwater robots to cut off the broken pipe and end with a cap.
BP said the spill - the largest in U.S. history - could be limited within 24 hours, but success is not guaranteed.
BP shares fell sharply on Tuesday after the failure of its earlier efforts to "top kill" the leak by pumping mud into the water.
At one point the share price hit its lowest level in 15 months as stock markets digested the news that the U.S. was "prepared for the worst scenario that the leak can not be stopped by August.
'Strong response'
Notice of criminal investigations, Mr. Holder said: "We will work closely with the actions of those involved in the leak test.
"If we have evidence of illegal behavior, we will be very strong in our response."
Mr. Holder, who on his first visit to the stricken region, said the companies had been ordered to keep their records.
"We shall ensure that every cent, every penny of taxpayer money will be repaid and that damage to the environment and nature will be repaid," he said.
Reuters quoted BP naturally in a statement that they "cooperate with an investigation by the Ministry of Justice undertakes.
Speaking in Washington on Tuesday President Barack Obama described the leak as "the greatest environmental disaster of its kind in our history" and promised those responsible to justice.
He said it was time for a comprehensive look at how the oil industry and how the U.S. government was monitoring their activities.
Other companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded on April 20 with the loss of 11 lives, including rig operator Transocean and oil service companies Halliburton and Cameron International.
Cautious note
In a final attempt to cap containment, remote-controlled robots on the seabed saw the damaged riser fits in to the CAP and the pipe of oil leaking to the surface.
Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said: "If all goes well, within the next 24 hours we were able to have this included."
However, finding a note of caution, he stressed that success was not guaranteed and urged people "Remember this is done in 5,000 feet of water, and very small matters take a long time to establish."
BP says the process will take the whole week and it does not expect to reduce the bus will be considerably more oil to escape.
But government scientists suggest the procedure was 20% more oil in the first release and the White House says it believes BP is not forthcoming about the risks, the BBC's Richard Lister reports from Washington.
Previous attempts by BP to the flow of oil cells all have failed.
Meanwhile, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warned that winds expected later this week, the leakage in the direction of the Mississippi and Alabama coasts, which are less affected than the coasts of Louisiana to move.
An oil sheen was observed that approximately nine miles (14.5 km) off the coast of Florida, with officials warning Pensacola Beach could be reached on Wednesday, the Associated Press news agency.
Tuesday also marked the beginning of hurricane season, NOAA predicted up to 14 hurricanes, of which between three to seven will be "major" storm, packing winds of over 110 mph.
At least 20 million gallons (76 million liters) spilled in the Gulf now, more than 70 miles (110 kilometers) of coastline of Louisiana.
BP has more than $ 940m (£ 645m) so far in trying to contain the disaster.
Hundreds of Afghan notables and the elders are meeting in Kabul to discuss how Taliban fighters to persuade lay down their arms.
President Hamid Karzai is aimed at the three-day "peace jirga 'to create support for his plan to turn an economic incentives reformed militants.
Taliban chiefs have dismissed the talks and threatened with death delegates.
They carry a nine years to fight the US-backed government to overthrow it and to expel the 130,000 foreign troops.
Traditional solution
Up to 1,600 delegates - including tribal elders, religious leaders and members of parliament from across the country - are expected to be in a huge tent to be convened at a university in Kabul for the traditional meeting.
But correspondents say they will be far surpassed by the 12,000 security officers who guard against a Taliban attack.
The jirga is due to late arrival on Friday, with an expected statement on what steps should be taken to the rebellion, which groups should be included in the process to terminate and how they should be approached.
'Pointless exercise'
President Karzai has suggested offering an amnesty and reintegration incentives to low-level Taliban who agree with the constitution.
He also offered to the removal of some Taliban to negotiate a UN blacklist, and certain leaders asylum in another Islamic country to peace talks.
On the eve of the conference, the Taliban said in a statement that the Jirga not represent the Afghan people and was aimed at safeguarding the interests of foreigners.
Another insurgent group, Hizb-i-Islami, led by former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, called the conference a "useless exercise".
"The participants of the jirga are favorites of the state," said a statement released by the group. "They have no power of decision. It is only a consultative jirga - without any involvement of the mujahideen (resistance fighters)."
Both militant groups have refused to participate in peace talks until foreign troops remain in Afghanistan.
But the BBC's Paul Wood in Kabul, said NATO believes that by addressing local grievances, many Taliban fighting near their homes were to the other side, leaving the ideologues irreconcilables and still fighting .
Even if the jirga continues, the NATO, U.S. and Afghan troops preparing for their largest offensive against the rebels in the southern province of Kandahar.
Foreign troop numbers are set to peak in August 150 000 before the U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama is a planned withdrawal of troops in July 2011.
Yukio Hatoyama Japanese Prime Minister has announced his resignation after only eight months in office.
He had after breaking an election promise to an unpopular American military base to move away from the southern island of Okinawa.
The move comes as his Democratic Party of Japan (DJP) is struggling to revive its chances in an election by July.
The center-left DPJ's election landslide last year's last half-century of conservative rule in Japan.
But wrangling over the basic distracted attention from their broader goals - the pursuit of a more equal alliance with the U.S., a bigger welfare state, and control of policy from the bureaucracy to seize, says the BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo.
Mr. Hatoyama, 63, was Japan's fourth prime minister in four years.
Broken promise
Until Tuesday night, Mr Hatoyama said he would stay, while intermittently holding talks with key members of his Democratic Party of Japan.
He announced his resignation but at a special meeting of lawmakers on Wednesday DJP.
He said he was Ichiro Ozawa, said the party Secretary-General - known as the "Shadow Shogun" for his power behind the scenes - to enter.
Mr Hatoyama was under pressure to quit since last week when it was confirmed that an unpopular U.S. base would stay on Okinawa.
For months he had unsuccessfully sought an alternative location for a promise to move off the island from Japan or even full compliance, our correspondent says.
When he failed his coalition government intact.
The members of his party with him had feared they would be trounced in the top-elections for the upper house of parliament next month, says our correspondent.
The following DPJ leader will have to take the complainant's by-elections for the upper house of parliament next month.
Possible successors are Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Naoto Kan, with Katsuya Okada Foreign Minister and Transport Minister Seiji Maehara also seen as potential contenders.
A study of discarded oyster shells have reinforced the idea that the first British colonists in America had to endure an unusually severe drought.
Founded in 1607, was Jamestown in Virginia the first successful English settlement in North America.
Chemical analysis of shells discarded from 1611-1612 shows that the James River, where oysters were harvested were much saltier then than it is today.
This was due to reduced flow from the surrounding freshwater rivers.
For this to have been the case, the rainfall was much lower when these oysters were growing.
U.S. researchers have published details about the work of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal.
After sailing from London, selected colonists Jamestown Island on the James River (named in honor of their king) as a safe place for their solution.
The location had the advantage of a deep water channel allowing English ships to ride close to shore.
But the island was swampy and overrun by mosquitoes.
And the latest evidence, combined with previous data, but the colonists could not have picked a worse time to establish their settlements.
Juliana Harding from the College of William and Mary at Gloucester Point, USA, and colleagues analyzed the oyster shells retrieved in 2006 from a well dug by the colonists.
The well was in use for only a short time before being converted into a dirt pit, either because it ran out or were infiltrated by salt water.
The team looked at levels of a certain isotope, or form of oxygen that is provided in the tanks.
The levels of this isotope - known as oxygen-18 - in oyster shells is controlled by temperature and salinity in the water they grow in.
The team compared oxygen-18 values in the 17th century James River oyster shells with them from their modern counterparts.
They found that winter salinity of the river was much higher in the early 1600s than it is today.
This suggests that winter precipitation was significantly lower than modern levels, confirming historical accounts of drought conditions at that time.
Previous data based on tree rings and historical documents show that the arrival of the English colonists in Virginia with a strong regional drought.
In the years 1606-1612 was the driest in nearly eight centuries.
"Shortages of food and fresh drinking water, combined with bad leaders, nearly destroyed the colony during its first decade," the authors of the recent study write in PNAS.
During what became known as "starving time" from 1609-1610, of which 80% of the colonists died.
Seasonal cycles of oxygen-18 values, together with archaeological data, allowed the researchers to demonstrate that the oysters were collected in different seasons between 1611 and 1612.
University teachers may opt for a national strike unless an agreement is reached on the redundancies, said a teacher 'union leader.
Sally Hunt, UCU head of the Union, said there would soon be a point where its members to push for action at a national level.
Teachers were fired daily reporting, "she said.
University employers said they were "disappointed" by the threat of national strike action.
The University and College Union, to hold its annual conference, said there had been more than 15 strikes on the areas since March.
And a number of colleges and other institutions were waiting for the strike ballot papers to come back.
"You can not continue with that, without a backlash," Ms. Hunt warned.
She said she just heard about 100 jobs at the University of Glasgow. And this came on top of the losses at King's, Westminster, UCL and the University of the Arts.
Three colleges in the West Midlands ballot on strike, as is the largest college in England, Manchester College
In preparation for the conference, Ms Hunt said: "We are almost daily reports from our officers get fired and there is a point in time when you can not actually wear without a setback."
"We are in dialogue with employers and higher education have been for the last two years applications and negotiate a contract job security.
"We have a number of parameters between universities and unions negotiate to get these reductions."
"Road courses jobs'
She said that if these talks are not successful, the union would consider a vote on the strike.
"It's getting to the point where there is a question mark in my head - how long is this still a local action?
"Soon we want our members to a national level and also a national response."
The union wants meaningful dialogue of universities and a halt compulsory redundancies.
In her address to Congress on Monday, she will argue that the new government, colleges and universities to cut budgets by £ 1.5 billion, while offering £ 8 billion in tax giveaways to business.
'Rise together'
"We will not accept attacks on education is implemented by the present government," she says.
"We will also be a step back, while students with the opportunity to benefit from education have stopped doing this and told their fate in life to accept."
"The conference day began, I counted more than 100 institutions that cuts - cutting classes, lay off staff, usually both," said Ms. Hunt.
Higher education employers' association, the universities and colleges Employers Association, expressed "disappointment" with the possibility of national strike action.
Chief executive Jocelyn Prudence also noted that universities were independent employers
"A one-size-fits-all approach would be for the CBI to create an agreement for the private sector," she said.
Business Secretary Vince Cable has called for "more discipline" in the public sector pay after it was announced that 172 officers are more than the Prime Minister paid.
The salaries of those earning more than £ 150,000 were revealed for the first time in an attempt to aid transparency.
OFT chief executive John Fingleton, whose annual package of £ 279,999, is the top earner.
Mr Cable said large increases in wages were not "affordable".
David Cameron, who is paid £ 142,500 a year, has a series of items Whitehall departments must disclose in an attempt to remove what he called a "cloak of secrecy" around the government said.
The salary and perks packages were revealed as part of this commitment to greater public access to official information.
Among other top earners NHS chief executive David Nicholson, who paid up to £ 259,999 and Joe Harley, IT Director General and Chief Information Officer at the Department for Work and Pensions, which receives £ 249,999.
Approximately 28 of those earning over £ 150,000 to the Ministry of Defence, but only three are based on the Ministry of Transport.
'Better Governance'
Permanent Secretaries - the head of public services - are paid between £ 150,000 and £ 200,000 per year.
Cabinet Minister Francis Maude said: "By being open and accountable, we can begin to regain the trust of people.
"Openness will not be pleasant for us in government, but the public will be able to keep our feet to the fire. This way is better government."
He added that the "transparency" is the key to the effectiveness of the coalition government drive would allow the public to help "deliver better value for money in public spending."
Business Secretary Vince Cable told BBC Radio Scotland he had written to the university and college heads tell them to "review" to compensation, adding more realism that was needed throughout the public sector.
"There is huge wage increases are the highest salaries, the people in the public sector trying to replicate what happens in the private sector and frankly is not affordable," he said.
And former foreign minister David Miliband said that more openness about the pay of top officials was "right".
"A great responsibility," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"In some areas there is the need to pay more. I think the commitment of people in public service, commitment to public service, is not fundamentally driven by money, but they should be well rewarded."
Private sector comparison
Represents the union officials said that no objections to the details are published, stressing they represented the wages of about 170 people in an organization of more than 500,000 employees.
"These are relatively high salaries compared to the average, but they are modest in many, most cases in comparison with the private sector," said Jonathan Baume, general secretary of the First Division Association.
"They are the jobs on top of a huge organization that across the UK."
Mike Sergeant said the BBC that some "ambitious officers" might be tempted to list the salaries to be used to push for higher rewards. "
"The government hopes that the opposite will happen - that reveal these names will lead to public pressure to hold down pay in senior Whitehall," he added.
