+ 'Aliens could attack at any time' warns former MoD chief.

During his time as head of the Ministry of Defence UFO project, Nick Pope was persuaded into believing that other lifeforms may visit Earth and, more specifically, Britain.

His concern is that "highly credible" sightings are simply dismissed.

And he complains that the project he once ran is now "virtually closed" down, leaving the country "wide open" to aliens.

+ "Teknikfel orsakade attacken i Gaza". Det här är alltså Israels variant på Hagamannen-försvaret: "Öhh asså jag var full å trött va".

+ Nytt nummer av SubRosa ute nu. Kolla speciellt in den fascinerande artikeln av en ockult boksamlare -- "666 Steps: The Confessions of a Crowley Bibliomaniac", illustrerad med en rad salivframkallande bilder av svåråtkomliga förstautgåvor.

+ Monkeys that are abused as infants develop a specific brain change that makes them more likely to mistreat their own offspring, a new study shows.

+ Birds have brilliant brains, say experts.

Scientists have discovered that the common pigeon actually has an astonishingly good long-term memory. In tests they found a single bird can memorise 1,200 pictures.

+ From Tunis to Tehran, the great veil debate.

"The niqab ... an imported innovation used by political extremists,'' screamed a recent headline in an Egyptian weekly. Here, government-linked newspapers are waging a heated campaign against the increasingly popular Saudi-style niqab. State TV stations ban their newscasters from wearing the garment, which leaves only a slit for a woman's eyes, and a top university recently followed suit.

(...)

Commonly seen by Westerners as a means of controlling or even oppressing women, veiling, in its own way, is also a practical means of increasing influence and access in some cultures.

Farzaneh Milani, a literature professor at the University of Virginia and author of "Veils and Words," points out that veiled women today are much more integrated in society.

She contrasts the Iran of her grandmother's time, in which many women withdrew from society after Reza Shah banned the veil in 1936 - going to public baths only in sacks on the backs of their husbands or sons - with that of modern Egypt, where the choice of women covering their hair puts their families at ease about the fate of their daughters out in public society.

"The veil of my grandmother was different from the veil of the women you see on the streets of Egypt today, who are out seeking education, working, having their pictures taken," she says. "It's a very different issue."