Carbon capture technology tested

The 30-tonne test unit could pave the way for a much larger plant

New carbon capture technology is being tested for the first time in the UK on a working coal-fired power station.

A 30-tonne test unit will process 1,000 cubic metres of exhaust gas per hour from Longannet power station in Fife.

Carbon dioxide will be removed using chemicals and turned into a liquid, ready for storage underground.

Energy company ScottishPower wants to test technology which could lead to a full scale carbon capture plant becoming operational by 2014.

The UK government recently gave the go-ahead for a new generation of coal-fired power stations provided they were able to limit their CO2 emissions.

The scientists have focussed on the post-combustion method of carbon capture and storage (CCS) which aims to trap greenhouse emissions after fossil fuels have been burnt.

The plant, developed by Aker Clean Carbon, will enable them to assess the effectiveness of chemicals, known as amines, at removing CO2.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh will join the project, testing three different types of amine solution over the next three months.

ScottishPower chief executive Nick Horler said: "This is the first time that CCS technology has been switched on and working at an operational coal-fired power station in the UK.

"It's a major step forward in delivering the reality of carbon-free fossil fuel electricity generation."

Research centre

ScottishPower's parent company Iberdrola said the UK would be its global centre of excellence for CCS development, bringing together academics, industry experts and engineers.

A professorship of CCS will be based at Edinburgh University, but other academic institutions will also be involved including Imperial College, London.

Iberdrola Chairman Ignacio Galan said: "We believe that the UK can lead the world with CCS technology, creating new skills, jobs and opportunities for growth.

"There is the potential to create an industry on the same scale as North Sea Oil, and we will invest in Scotland and the UK to help to realise this potential."

The Longannet power station opened in 1969 and is the second largest in the UK.

The station chimney is 183m tall, the second highest free-standing structure in Scotland.

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Space rock yields carbon bounty

The Tagish Lake meteorite formed before our Solar System

Cold temperatures on Tagish Lake prevented the volatile chemical from dissipating quickly.

An analysis showed four times more formic acid in the fragments than has been recorded on previous meteorites.

The researchers told a meeting of the American Geophysical Union that the formic acid was extraterrestrial.

Formic acid is one of a group of compounds dubbed "organics", because they are rich in carbon.

"We are lucky that the meteorite was untouched by humans hands, avoiding contamination by organic compounds that we have on our fingers," said Dr Christopher Herd, the curator of the University of Alberta's meteorite collection.

Samples of the meteorite totalling 850 grams were collected from Tagish Lake in Canada, purchased in 2006 by a consortium including the Royal Ontario Museum and recently subjected to chemical analysis.

The scientists found levels of formic acid four times higher than had previously been recorded on a meteorite. Studies have until recently focused on the Murchison meteorite that landed in a town of that name in Australia in 1969.

"The interesting thing is that we do see this variability between meteorites, seeming to have increased enrichments of one particular compound over another," said Mark Sephton, a meteorite and geochemistry professor at Imperial College London.

"This has for a while been overlooked as we concentrated predominantly on the Murchison meteorite, but now we've got another fresh sample and we can start to analyse a different portion of the asteroid belt and therefore a different portion of the Solar System."

Primordial kitchen

The Murchison meteorite contains many types of amino acids

The particular types, or isotopes, of hydrogen that are found in the formic acid show that it most likely formed in the cold regions of space before our Solar System existed.

On Earth, formic acid is commonly found in the stings of insects such as ants, but Professor Sephton it is likely to have been an important "ingredient in the kitchen" on Earth before life began.

The acid is known to act as a "reducing agent" - acting as a magnet for oxygen atoms during chemical reactions - and facilitate the conversion of some amino acids into others.

It may also be implicated in the transformation of the more primitive RNA into DNA.

Only one of the four "nucleobases" that make up RNA and DNA is different between the two: uracil is present in RNA while thymine takes its place in DNA.

Professor Sephton's team found uracil in the Murchison meteorite, but no measurable amount of thymine. However, formic acid is known to help along the reaction that converts the uracil into thymine.

The reaction, he said, is "one of the ways in which you can take some simple molecules and increase the chemical diversity of the pool of pre-biotic molecules".

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Beavers return after 400 year gap

The beavers are tagged to help with the monitoring of their progress

A total of 11 beavers have been released into the wild in Argyll as part of a reintroduction programme.

Four more may join the Scottish Beaver Trial being run in Knapdale Forest.

The beavers have been brought to Scotland from Norway and their release marks a return to the UK after a 400 year absence.

The release will be studied to determine whether the trial should be extended and beavers reintroduced across Scotland.

Colin Galbraith, of Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), has been an enthusiastic backer of the scheme.

He said: "I think this is a hugely exciting move and one in which we've got to take people with us.

The first beavers to be released into the wild in Scotland for more than 400 years

"There's never been a reintroduction of a mammal back to the UK.

"We've done the red kite and the sea eagle - they've gone pretty well - people are now behind that.

"We've got to try to do this reintroduction of a mammal in a very scientific careful and monitored way."

But not everyone has been behind the scheme.

Alan Kettlewhite is a biologist with Argyll Fisheries Trust: "Potentially they can alter the habitats of fish, restricting access to spawning grounds.

"I think the concerns are based on studies in other countries where sometimes dam-building can prevent fish access to their spawning grounds, particularly in dry years where you don't get much rain in the autumn time."

But SNH's Colin Galbraith said he felt a duty towards the beavers: "For me the argument is very simple.

"They were here - we killed them out.

"I think we've got the moral obligation to bring them back."

Continuously tested

Project officer Jenny Holden said: "The main things people are concerned about are giardia and cryptosporidium.

"They are bacteria that can infect the guts of humans and make you feel really quite unwell - food-poisoning type bugs.

"The beavers that are released will have been tested continuously for six months and then throughout the five year trial to make sure they are clear of these bacteria.

"So if we find a few years down the line that the beavers are infected, they won't have brought it in, they will have caught it out in the environment here."

Darren Dobson is from the Carinbaan Hotel near the release site.

He is delighted at the prospect of beavers, and hopes they will prove to be a major tourist attraction.

He said: "Generally speaking it's all positive. I haven't met anyone myself who is negative to the idea.

The beavers were captured in Norway and brought to Argyll for release

"It's going to bring more tourists - and this is just one more thing to add to what this area's got."

Scottish Natural Heritage, (SNH), will monitor the relationship between beavers and woodland, water plants, river habitat, water levels, otters, dragonflies, damselflies and freshwater fish.

The beavers themselves will also be under close scrutiny, using tracking data.

SNH will co-ordinate the scientific monitoring work with a range of independent bodies, including Oxford University Wildlife Conservation Research Unit and the Argyll Fisheries Trust.

SNH is contributing £275,000 to the cost of monitoring the trial.

It is claimed the trial will be a major contribution to Scotland's Species Action Framework, which identifies 32 species, including European beaver, as the focus of new management action.

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Deforestation 'faster in Africa'

Establishing community land rights could help slow deforestation

Africa's forests are disappearing faster than those in other parts of the world because of a lack of land ownership, a report says.

Less than 2% of Africa's forests are under community control, compared to a third in Latin America and Asia, say the Rights and Resources Initiative.

The deforestation rate in Africa is four times the world's average.

At the current rate, it will take Congo Basin countries 260 years to reach the level of reform achieved in the Amazon.

Action on land tenure could help to halt deforestation, slow climate change and alleviate poverty, says the report, entitled Tropical Forest Tenure Assessment: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities.

The study was presented in Cameroon's capital, Yaounde, at a meeting of forest community representatives from Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Slow progress

The authors compared the distribution of land ownership in 39 tropical countries, which represent 96% of global tropical forests.

They found that African citizens have far less control over the forests they inhabit than do the peoples of other tropical regions.

Several countries have introduced or amended laws to strengthen community land rights - including Angola, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Sudan and Tanzania.

However, the report calls for these nations to "quickly scale up" the process.

"Recognising local land rights alone doesn't solve all the problems," said Andy White, coordinator of the Rights and Resources Initiative.

"Governments need to follow up by supporting local management and enterprises.

"There are some countries that have recognised local land rights, but the government still controls the forest, and hands out concessions to industrial loggers - leading to more degradation and corruption."

Failure to ensure land rights for indigenous peoples and particularly women, will impede efforts to stop deforestation and mitigate climate change, say the authors.

Clearing of land for agriculture, logging, and other extractive industries accounts for as much as one third of some countries' total carbon emissions.

Carbon payments

Payments for reducing deforestation could be a potential source of income in the region. But without tenure reform, the authors argue, these potential benefits will remain unreachable.

The rate of deforestation in Africa is four times the world's average

The conference aims to kickstart new initiatives to establish forest tenure rights in west and central Africa, building on recent steps to decentralise governance.

Cameroon has begun by negotiating a legally binding bilateral pact, known as a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA), with the European Union.

The VPA will help ensure that wood products exported from Cameroon to the EU contain no illegally harvested timber and are derived from managed forests that benefit local communities.

"The slowness of reform is suppressing a whole range of opportunities to reduce poverty and improve livelihoods," said Emmanuel Ze Meka, Executive Director of the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO), co-authors of the report.

"Africa's forest communities already generate millions of jobs and dollars in domestic and regional trade, and in indigenous livelihoods, but current laws keep some of these activities illegal and also undermine opportunities to improve forest management."

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US commander in Pakistan warning

Adm Mullen said it was in America's security interests to fight the Taliban

A US troop build-up in Afghanistan could push Taliban fighters deeper into Pakistan, further destabilising it, the most senior US commander has warned.

Admiral Michael Mullen, who chairs the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was speaking at a meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington.

Thousands of Pakistani troops are already battling Taliban militants in the north-west of the country.

Up to two million people in the area have fled the fighting, the UN says.

See a map of the region

On Friday, the UN launched an appeal for $543m (£343m) to ease what it said was the "incredible suffering" of the internally displaced people in Pakistan.

New strategy

In Washington, Adm Mullen told the Senate committee that the US had a clear national security interest in confronting the Taliban.

"They want Afghanistan back. We can't let them or their al-Qaeda cohorts have it. We can't permit the return of the... very same safe haven from which the attacks on 9/11 were planned and resourced," he said.

But Adm Mullen agreed with one of the senators that a US offensive in southern Afghanistan could force more Taliban fighters to flee into Pakistan.

"We can't deny that our success in that regard [in Afghanistan] may only push them [militants] deeper into Pakistan," he said.

"Can I... [be] 100% certain that won't destabilise Pakistan? I don't know the answer to that," he added.

However, Adm Mullen said US and Pakistani forces were planning measures to prevent this, without giving further details.

Adm Mullen's comments come as US President Barack Obama's administration prepares to send thousands of extra troops to Afghanistan.

With plans announced for a phased pull-out of US troops from Iraq, Afghanistan was recently confirmed as the primary focus of US military operations.

Mr Obama's new strategy is expected to pair non-military methods and reconstruction with a stronger armed force on the ground.

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Ties tense for EU-Russia summit

No breakthroughs are expected

European Union and Russian leaders are holding talks near Russia's far eastern city of Khabarovsk, discussing trade and energy issues.

Russia and the EU are each other's biggest trading partner, but political tensions remain high.

Moscow recently accused the 27-member bloc of creating new dividing lines in Europe by offering closer ties to six former Soviet republics.

And Russia's control of gas supplies to Europe remains a bone of contention.

No-one expects any breakthroughs at the summit, the BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow says.

Perhaps the biggest hope is for an agreement to resume negotiations on a new partnership deal which first began almost a year ago, our correspondent says.

'Russia's greatness'

European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Czech President Vaclav Klaus are leading the EU team in Khabarovsk.

The Russian delegation is headed by President Dmitry Medvedev.

"We need to come back to the financial and economic crisis, we need to talk about the state of affairs in the energy sector and a new security architecture," he said as the meeting opened.

He said earlier that Khabarovsk - 6,000 km (3,700 miles) from Moscow but just 30 km from the Chinese border - had been chosen as the venue for the talks to allow the visitors to "appreciate Russia's greatness".

A year ago - when Mr Medvedev became Russia's new leader - there was hope that relations with the EU might gradually improve, our correspondent says.

Instead, he says, they have got steadily worse.

Relations plummeted after last year's brief war between Russia and Georgia.

Since then there has been another gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine which led to gas supplies to many European countries being cut off for two weeks in mid-winter.

There is also a growing battle over energy pipelines as the EU tries to find alternatives to its growing dependency on Russian gas.

There is also concern in the EU about Russia's recent increase of customs duties on a wide range of European imports, including steel, starch and TV screens - despite its pledge to fight protectionism along with its G20 partners.

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Microsoft patents 'magic wand'

The Xbox 360 controller has not changed since it launched in 2005

An application was filed in 2007 for a motion controller, dubbed Magic Wand, that interacts with "a collection of sensors".

Microsoft says it will not "comment on speculation" about a possible launch.

Gavin Ogden, from gaming site c&vg.com, told the BBC that Microsoft needed to "jump on the motion sensor bandwagon".

"We thought they were going to show something off at the E3 Expo in 2007 - some sort of waggle stick - but nothing materialised," he said.

"I have no doubt they are going to try and do something, although it remains to be seen how they do it."

Biometrics

The patent application also describes "biometric sensors" that would examine "fingerprint, hand geometry, hand vein pattern, palm pattern, and grip configuration" along with "facial thermogram, a facial feature, a retinal feature, or an iris feature".

"There was talk, a long time ago, about mapping people's faces on to characters," said Mr Ogden.

"However, there were concerns that people would stick real faces on it - such as Gordon Brown - and then spend all day shooting them. The world wasn't ready for that."

At the beginning of May, Microsoft's boss, Steve Ballmer, gave a speech to the Dallas Regional Chamber and was quoted as saying: "Pay attention to the stuff we're announcing in the next month on Xbox."

So the industry will be waiting to see if Microsoft comes up with any surprises at the Los Angeles expo in June.

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Palm announces Pre launch dates

The Pre is widely seen as a rival to other popular smartphones

The much-anticipated handset will cost $199.99 (£129), after a rebate, and buyers must take out a two-year contract when signing up.

Palm said it expected the phone to be available nationwide at launch and has signed up four stores to put the gadget on their shelves.

No date has been given for when the handset will launch in the UK.

Data share

First announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2009, the Pre has generated a huge amount of interest largely thanks to Palm's long history in personal data devices.

The Pre impressed many with its operating system, which is geared towards working with the websites, such as social networks and e-mail services, people use when out and about.

The phone automatically recognises when owners connect to social or e-mail services and builds up a global list of contacts and login details as it is used.

Unlike many other phones, the handset also allows owners to have several different applications running at the same time.

The phone also has an innovative interface based around its touch screen and a "gesture area" below the display.

The phone will use Sprint's 3G network and buyers are recommended to take out an unlimited data plan as the phone swaps a lot of information back and forth as it is being used.

The phone is widely seen as a rival to other smartphones such as Apple's iPhone, Android handsets and RIM's Blackberry.

Also on sale at launch will be the wireless charging system. This will not be included in the basic bundle for the phone but will cost an additional $69.99 (£45) for the Touchstone dock and cover for the Pre.

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Japan's economy in record plunge

Japan's exports have been hit by a collapse in demand

The contraction is the fourth in succession, following a 3.8% drop in October to December.

But economists are predicting modest growth in the coming months after a small rise in production in March.

The world's second biggest economy, which depends heavily on exports, has been hit hard by the global downturn.

The BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo says people around the world are buying fewer of the cars and electronic gadgets that Japan is renowned for.

The latest contraction is the biggest since records began in 1955.

It comes at an annualised rate of 15.2%, compared with a 6.1% fall in the US over the same period.

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US Senate passes credit card bill

Credit card issuers said the tougher rules could backfire

The bill would curb sudden interest rate increases and hidden fees.

The industry has warned that the measure could backfire, leading banks to issue fewer credit cards thus making it harder to get credit.

The bill would mark the first major financial reform made by the Obama administration.

Analysts said it would hurt the profits of major credit card issuers such as Citigroup and Bank of America.

The bill must again go before the House of Representatives and then be approved by President Barack Obama, who is expected to sign it into law by the end of the month.

Edward Yingling, president of the American Bankers Association, said the credit card bill, if signed into law, would undermine the availability of credit.

'Reasonable rules'

The bill would prevent companies from raising interest rates on existing balances unless a card holder was 60 days behind, and then it would require the rate to be restored to its previous level if payments were on time for six months.

Card holders would have to be told of rate increases 45 days in advance and it would also make it harder for people aged under 21 to be issued with credit cards.

"This bill bans unfair rate increases, makes companies play by reasonable rules and magnifies the fine print so consumers aren't blindsided by their monthly bills," Democratic Senator Richard Durbin said.

However, there are fears that if penalties on riskier borrowers are limited, credit card issuers could introduce annual fees and and curtail reward programmes to make up for lost revenue.

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Pound at highest level this year

Pound vs dollar

Sterling climbed as high as $1.5523 against the dollar - the highest since mid-December. It also rose against the euro to 1.1410 euros.

The pound got a lift as UK bank shares gained on hopes the worst might be over for the battered sector.

In January, the pound hit a 23-year low of $1.35 against the dollar.

Last July, the pound was worth more than $2 but fell sharply as the depth of the UK's economic downturn became clear.

Optimism about the UK's financial sector was sparked by a Financial Times report that the government was considering a sale of its shares in Lloyds and RBS.

Currency analysts expect the pound to continue to strengthen, particularly against the euro, as economic data from the euro zone continues to be gloomy.

"There is no doubt the UK economy is still in a bad way," said Mark O'Sullivan, director of dealing at Currencies Direct, a London-based foreign exchange trader.

"But currency markets are taking the view that sterling will outperform both the dollar and euro going forward," he added.

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