Scientists around the world have teamed up to sequence the genome of the potato, hoping to crack the genetic code of one of the world's most important crops at a time of surging population growth and high food prices.
Solanum tuberosum, the scientific name of the humble white potato, looks simple.
But it is chock full of mysteries hidden in its 12 chromosomes and 840 million DNA base pairs. Humans, by comparison, have three billion DNA base pairs.
The Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium includes scientists in 13 countries from New Zealand to India and Peru who are decoding different pieces of the genome.
It plans to have its work done in 2010 and will then make its findings public so plant breeders can create new seeds resistant to everything from droughts and diseases to extreme temperatures.
Calling 999 over a rabbit
Call the cops quick - my new rabbit hasn't got floppy ears. It doesn't sound like a case for Sherlock Holmes but one woman decided it was worth calling the 999 emergency number when her new bunny did not match its newspaper advert description, according to Central Scotland Police.
The force, which said it wanted to highlight abuse of the 999 phone system, also revealed yesterday that two callers had rung up within minutes of each other to complain about being splashed by a car driving through a puddle.
"It is unbelievable that anyone should phone 999 to report being soaked by a passing car, ask for a postcode or report that the item bought from a newspaper advert was not as described," said Chief Inspector Alan Stewart.
Minister swears, but diplomatically
Russia's Foreign Minister acknowledged yesterday that he used an expletive in a conversation with his British counterpart but said he was just repeating a colourful description he had heard of Georgia's President.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, admitted he struggled in a telephone conversation to convince British Foreign Secretary David Miliband that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili had started the war in Georgia, not Russia.
"In order to present Miliband with a different point of view, I had to tell him about a description of Saakashvili that our colleague from a European state gave in a conversation with me," Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted Mr Lavrov as saying. "That description went like this: 'F***ing lunatic'," the news agency quoted Mr Lavrov as telling Russian reporters.
Mr Saakashvili, a US-educated lawyer, angered Moscow by seeking to take his ex-Soviet state into Nato and trying to retake separatist South Ossetia.
Unholy row as clerics slam Ramadan TV
The sanctity of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan has been spoiled for some in the Arab world by an unholy row over "depraved" TV comedies and serials that have led Saudi clerics to demand the death penalty.
Ramadan, which ends around September 30, is a month of fasting when Muslims are supposed to focus on God. But across the Arab world it has become an orgy of food and TV consumption once the fast ends at sunset and advertisers have a captive audience.
"If they continue airing depravity and shamelessness they should be banished from this place and others brought in their place," senior Saudi cleric Sheikh Saleh al-Fozan said in comments published on Sunday, referring to TV executives.
He suggested purveyors of horoscopes and "sorcery" should face the death penalty, and head of the Islamic sharia courts Sheikh Saleh al-Lohaidan said last week channel owners should be tried and face possible death for "indecency and vulgarity".
Congo riot over soccer witchcraft
Eleven people were killed in a stadium riot in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after a soccer player tried to use witchcraft to win a local match, UN-backed Radio Okapi reported yesterday.
Nyuki club was losing to local rivals Socozaki on Sunday when Nyuki's goalkeeper advanced up the pitch and tried to use "fetishist" spells to turn the tide of the match, Okapi said.
When a police commander tried to break up an ensuing brawl between rival players, members of the crowd pelted him with rocks, the radio added. Police fired teargas in response, causing a stampede to the exits in which 11 people were killed and several injured.