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Article written by Phil Coomes Picture editor War or gaming fun? Spot the difference   Which one is the real thing? The blurring of reality and the virtual world has come full circle. Just over twenty years ago I can remember watching the first stirrings of the Gulf War, arguably the first television war, and one where the images of missile strikes were commonplace. The world watched pictures beamed from the missiles as they made their way to their intended target, or in some cases to a different spot entirely. War seemed remote, and the visuals did nothing to convey the reality for those on the wrong end of events. Today we are used to seeing real time reports from across the globe, technology has advanced and anyone with an internet connection can travel to far-off places, even imaginary worlds, from their armchair. The world of video games has progressed too. Some seem real, as highlighted by a recent Ofcom ruling that ITV

Frenetic pace of Ethiopia's khat boomtown By Mary Harper BBC News, Ethiopia The global trade in khat is worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year and in one Ethiopian town daily life centres almost entirely around the drug. Drive along any road between Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia and you are likely to see pick-up trucks, piled high with bundles of fresh green leaves, hurtling past you at terrific speed, horns blaring, lights flashing. A bit like ambulances. Or fire engines. Land at any airport and you will see planes stuffed with the same green leaves, being unloaded at a frenzied pace. Whether there is war, drought or famine, the leaves get through. The khat industry booms. I used to wonder where all this khat was coming from. Now I know. The small town of Awaday is in between Ethiopia's most holy Muslim town of Harar and its big eastern city of Dire Dawa. I first arrived in Awaday late at night. Unlike the

Raymond Aubrac: How I tricked the Gestapo By Hugh Schofield BBC News, Paris Raymond Aubrac, 97, on his encounters with Resistance leader Jean Moulin The capture of French Resistance hero Jean Moulin is one of the country's darkest chapters of the war. The last surviving Resistance leader, Raymond Aubrac, recalls that night and the audacious escape that followed. Of all the momentous events that helped build the legend of the wartime French Resistance, one episode outstrips the rest for its combination of tragedy, mystery and high-octane drama. In France they refer to it simply as the "raid on the house in Caluire". To the rest of the world, it is the story of how the Gestapo finally laid hands on Jean Moulin. Jean Moulin was the former prefect who in January 1942 was sent by General de Gaulle to organise the anti-German underground. For a year-and-a

100 years of the war on drugs By Tom de Castella BBC News Magazine   The first international drug treaty was signed a century ago this week. So what was the war on drugs like in 1912? Today it is taken for granted that governments will co-operate in the fight against the heroin and cocaine trade. But 100 years ago, narcotics passed from country to country with minimal interference from the authorities. That all changed with the 1912 International Opium Convention, which committed countries to stopping the trade in opium, morphine and cocaine. Then, as now, the US stood in the vanguard against narcotics. While the UK's position is unequivocal today, a century ago it was an unenthusiastic signatory, says Mike Jay, author of Emperors of Dreams: Drugs in the Nineteenth Century. The real concern a century ago was over alcohol, he argues. "There was a big debate over intoxication as there was concern about the heavy, hea

Google+ relaxes real name policy to allow pseudonyms   Google said the change in policy was a response to "community feedback"   Established pseudonyms can be used to register accounts on Google+ after the social network relaxed its name policy. The move follows criticism from human rights groups which had said there were circumstances under which individuals could have become unsafe if they revealed their identities. The search giant said it had already begun rolling out the amended policy. However, it is said users must prove their nickname has already attracted an audience elsewhere. The change of rules was confirmed on the account page of Google executive Bradley Horowitz. He noted that 0.1% of all applicants filed name appeals, and 20% of this number wanted to use a pseudonym or other unconventional name. Mr Horowitz said that users wanting to take advantage of the new policy might have to provide "references to an established identity of

IMF: Global economy 'in danger zone' over euro crisis Jose Vinals, IMF: "A failure to address underlying tensions could precipitate a global crisis" The world's economy is "deeply into the danger zone" because of risks from the eurozone, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said. The IMF predicts the global economy will grow by 3.25% in 2012, down from an earlier forecast of 4%. The growth forecast for the UK economy has been cut to 0.6% from 1.6%. But the eurozone is set for a "mild recession" in 2012, with GDP expected to shrink by 0.5%, compared with a previous forecast of 1.1% growth. Growth estimates have been reduced for the main eurozone countries, including Germany, which is widely seen as the powerhouse of the region. Germany is forecast to grow 0.3% in 2012, down from the 1.3% originally predicted in September. France is expected to show 0.2% growth in 2012,

EU Iran sanctions: Ministers adopt Iran oil imports ban EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton: "Tehran should come to the table" European Union foreign ministers have formally adopted an oil embargo against Iran over its nuclear programme. The sanctions involve an immediate ban on all new oil contracts with Iran, while existing contracts will be honoured until 1 July. Tehran denies that it is trying to develop nuclear weapons and says talks and not sanctions are the only way to resolve the dispute. The EU currently buys about 20% of Iran's oil exports. Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog has confirmed it is sending a team to Iran between 29 and 31 January "to resolve all outstanding substantive issues". Last November the IAEA said in a report that it had information suggesting Iran had carried out tests "relevant to the development of

Eurozone finance ministers to focus on Greek debt   The talks could be crucial to the future of the euro Eurozone finance ministers are to meet later, with the Greek debt crisis likely to dominate proceedings. On the agenda will be what form Greek debt restructuring should take as part of a second bailout package for Athens. It comes after negotiators for private creditors left Greece without a deal to write off some of the country's debts. Separately, IMF boss Christine Lagarde has said the eurozone needs economic growth and bigger financial firewalls to resolve debt issues. Deadline The Institute of International Finance (IIF), which represents Greece's creditors, said a technical team would remain to work further on the details. European leaders agreed in principle last year that private lenders would voluntarily write off 50% of their loans to Greece, but private creditors still need to agree to the terms of the deal. A 130bn euro ($168bn; £

Stargazing viewer in planet coup By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News Amateur astronomer Chris Holmes form Peterborough stumbled upon SPH10066540 The public push initiated on BBC Two's Stargazing Live series to find planets beyond our Solar System has had an immediate result. A viewer who answered the call has helped spot a world that appears to be circling a star dubbed SPH10066540. The planet is described as being similar in size to our Neptune and circles its parent every 90 days. Chris Holmes from Peterborough found it by looking through time-lapsed images of stars on Planethunters.org . The website hosts data gathered by Nasa's Kepler space telescope , and asks volunteers to sift the information for anything unusual that might have been missed in a computer search. "I've never had a telescope. I've had a passing in

By Sarah Keating Today programme "There is nothing to writing," explained that master of minimalist prose, Ernest Hemingway. "All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." But this year marks the 40th anniversary of the first university in Britain offering a course in creative writing, an event which suddenly threw open the possibility that a writer could be taught their craft. The creative writing course at the University of East Anglia (UEA) has produced an impressive list of alumni, including Booker Prize winners Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro and Anne Enright. But is creative writing really a skill that can be passed on in this way? The popularity of the formal teaching of writing is evident in the sheer number of courses currently availa

With a new film due to document the writing of the highly influential author WG Sebald, the Today programme's Tom Bateman followed in his footsteps in East Anglia. The Suffolk coast in midwinter seems almost deserted. The sounds of footsteps from a lone dog walker are carried by occasional gusts of wind that flatten the overgrown grass fields set out before the beach begins. The village of Walberswick forms one part of the route in WG Sebald's The Rings of Saturn, a brooding work - part novel, part travel diary - drawing on the author's obsessions with history and the destructive forces of man and nature. WG Sebald died in a car accident in 2001 It is an area Sebald chose as an emblem for "continual destruction," says Grant Gee, a filmmaker who is releasing a new film based on Sebald's work . "The coastline is so s

Resident Evil 6 will be released in November 2012, Capcom have confirmed. The games developer announced they are currently working on the new instalment of the popular zombie series. An official trailer for the game was released on Thursday (19 January), and hinted that parts of it will be set in China. Resident Evil 6 is due to be released on 20 November for consoles, with a PC version of the game to follow soon after. Capcom said Chris Redfield and Leon Kennedy - characters from previous games in the series - would star alongside a number of new characters in RE6. A lot of fans thought Resident Evil 5 was too much action and not enough survival horror Matt Dahlgren Product Marketing Manager, Capcom Speaking about the game's plot, the company said: "It has been ten years since the Raccoon City incident and the President of the United States has decided to reveal the truth behind what took place in the belief that it

Hackers retaliate over Megaupload website shutdown By Leo Kelion Technology reporter   Megaupload displayed a video with celebrity endorsements before it was shut down Hackers have targeted the US government and copyright organisations following the shutdown of the Megaupload file-sharing website. The Department of Justice (DoJ), FBI and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) among others have been bombarded with internet traffic. Web links have been been distributed which, when clicked, make the user's computer part of the attack. A statement attributed to Anonymous claimed responsibility. Blackout protest The DoJ announced on Thursday that it had taken action to force Megaupload and related domain names offline, and had charged the firm's co-founders and others with violating piracy laws. Four of the employees have been arrested in Auckland, New Zealand, at the request of the US authorities.