Mike Baker looks over the diary for next year - when there are some big risks on the horizon.

Part Two of Maggie Shiels's summary of the way Silicon Valley sees 2009 panning out for technology.

Seventy-five years before the Spice Girls coined the term girl power, Betty Boop struck a blow for just such a cause. Ever since, cartoons and animations have challenged our traditional perceptions of femininity.

A global league table has placed England's primary and secondary pupils in the top 10 for science and maths.

Zimbabwe's President Mugabe should resign or be sent to The Hague, says Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

A mass vaccination of more than 10,000 children is beginning in Cheshire in a bid to head off a measles epidemic.

Cornish Pirates prop Alan Paver reflects in growing moustaches, eating bags of sweets and the little matter of playing as prop forward for the Cornish Pirates in his weekly column.

Ahead of the release of Electric Arguments under the alias of The Fireman, Sir Paul McCartney talks about his latest offering with cohort Youth

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board response to allegations concerning Vale of Leven Hospital's C.diff outbreak.

LCD Soundsystem's guitarist and percussionist says the band is on the permanent back burner.

Hospitals need to be vigilant against an emerging drug-resistant bacterium, warn infection control experts.

Has the Democratic victory has changed the model of US presidential politics in the longer term.

Increased rainfall - or something linked to it - may be connected to the development of autism, scientists claim.

Vigorous exercise seems to protect against the development of breast cancer in normal-weight postmenopausal women, US research shows.

French police officers visit London as part of a three-week exchange programme with the Metropolitan Police Service.

A study suggests girls start school an average of two months ahead of boys.

The stages Syria and Lebanon have passed through before an historic agreement to establish diplomatic relations.

College principals estimate that up to three-quarters of poor students have not received their maintenance allowances.

Adding fish to a child's diet before the age of nine months could lessen the chances of developing eczema, a study suggests.

Graduates from the world's only degree programme in Forensic Art put their work on display in Dundee.