Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, sporting her traditional braid and a designer coat, chatted yesterday by the fireside in a tent pitched in central Kiev by visiting Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Ms Tymoshenko, shivering in the gloomy autumn weather, sat opposite Col Gaddafi in the green tent adorned with geometric symbols and images of palm trees and camels. The Libyan leader wore a black cloak and a bright blue cravat. A few metres away a small bonfire blazed outside a state residence assigned to the Libyan leader during a three-day stay in Ukraine at the end of a tour of ex-Soviet states.

Col Gaddafi on Tuesday met President Viktor Yushchenko, the Prime Minister's former ally turned rival, with talks focusing on cooperation in energy and a double taxation agreements.

Little House on the Prairie rated 'AO'

Finland has rated the DVD release of the much-loved children's TV series "Little House on the Prairie" suitable for adult viewing only.

To save money, Universal Pictures decided not to submit the series to state inspection, the company's Finland marketing manager Meri Suomela said yesterday.

Finnish authorities charge €2 per minute for assessing the correct age limit on films and TV series. Distributors who forego this can only sell their shows with a sticker saying "Banned for under-18s".

"Long series can get quite expensive to check, and some use this exemption in the law to their advantage," said Matti Paloheimo, Director at the Finnish Board of Film Classification."

Little House on the Prairie, which ran from 1974 to 1983, portrayed life in the US West in the late 1800s and was based on the Laura Ingalls Wilder's children's book of the same name.

It remains popular in Finland, and is still screened weekly on Sunday mornings.

Smokers banned from fostering

A council has become the first in London to rule that smokers will no longer be able to foster children.

Redbridge Council's Cabinet has agreed to a ban on placing children with foster carers who smoke unless there are exceptional circumstances. The local authority in London said the decision, was made to protect children from the "damaging effects of passive and second-hand smoke".

Existing smokers will be told of the new policy and given help to quit.

The Fostering Network said it believed no child under five should be placed with carers who smoked.

Tobacco lobby groups said the move was part of an "ongoing campaign to stigmatise smokers".

"It's going to exclude people who could be outstanding foster parents," said a spokesman for pro-smoking group Forest.

Detergent washes away murder stains

A new generation of cleaning products could help criminals get away with murder by making bloodstains invisible to forensic tests.

A team at the University of Valencia found that new washing powders and other chemicals that generate oxygen rather than use chlorine erase telltale traces of blood haemoglobin.

Police often rely on blood-splattered clothing to link a murderer to a crime. Even after 10 washes, forensic experts have been able, up to now, to identify blood using a cocktail of chemicals to unmask the stains.

But new detergents like Reckitt Benckiser's 'Vanish' that contain the active ingredient sodium carbonate peroxyhydrate produce a fizz of oxygen bubbles that degrade blood even though the stain may remain visible to the naked eye.

Forensic scientists will next investigate if the new oxygen-producing chemicals also destroy DNA, which can provide crucial evidence in murder investigations.

Georgina Baillie says BBC went too far

The woman at the centre of the prank phone call scandal that engulfed the BBC last week has said that presenters Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross should be reinstated.

Mr Brand quit his job and Mr Ross was suspended for 12 weeks for leaving crude messages on the answerphone of 78-year-old actor Andrew Sachs during a radio show. Mr Brand had joked with Mr Ross that he had slept with Georgina Baillie, the 23-year-old granddaughter of Mr Sachs who played Spanish waiter Manuel in Fawlty Towers.

However, Ms Baillie, who originally said the duo should lose their jobs said she had now changed her mind.

"I think the suspension was good enough... I think it's way out of proportion what's happened."

Ms Baillie, who is a member of the Satanic Sluts dance troupe, admitted she had slept with Mr Brand.

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