Kelis filed for support money before the baby was born

A judge has ordered rapper Nas to pay almost $40,000 (£24,200) per month in support to estranged wife Kelis - a day after she gave birth to their child.

The 29-year-old singer - real name Kelis Rogers - gave birth to a boy, named Knight, on Wednesday.

Neither of the stars were in court to hear the temporary order being made. A further hearing is due on 8 September.

Ms Rogers filed for divorce from the rapper, 35 - real name Nasir Jones - in April. They got married in July 2003.

Ms Rogers will receive monthly payments of $30,741 (£18,620) in spousal support and $9,027 (£5,470) to raise their son.

The judge also ordered Mr Jones to pay Ms Rogers $45,000 (£27,260) in fees for lawyers and an accountant.

Her focus is on getting acquainted with him and enjoying her role as a new mom Spokeswoman for Kelis Rogers on the birth of baby Knight

The pair had previously failed to reach agreement over payments.

Mr Jones’s lawyer, Mark Vincent Kaplan, had proposed that his client give Ms Rogers a one-off payment of $20,000 (£12,110) to give the judge more time to consider appropriate monthly payments.

But Judge Louis Meisinger decided to make a temporary ruling on monthly payments which, he said, were appropriate based on Ms Rogers’s lifestyle and declarations of income filed with the court.

The singer’s lawyer, Laura Wasser, said Ms Rogers’s earnings had dipped in recent months but that she was trying to get a new record deal.

Baby Knight was born weighing 7lb 8oz (3.4kg).

Mr Kaplan said Mr Jones had been “delighted” to have arrived at the hospital “five to 10 minutes before the baby was delivered”.

A spokeswoman for Ms Rogers said: “Kelis is grateful to have given birth to a healthy baby boy.

“Her focus is on getting acquainted with him and enjoying her role as a new mom.”

The UK economy contracted 0.8% between April and June, more than double the figure economists had expected.

While an improvement on the previous quarter, the figures may indicate that the recovery could take longer than previously had been thought.

The contraction was much less than the 2.4% seen in the first quarter but was still above analysts’ 0.3% prediction.

The latest figures take the annual rate of decline to 5.6%, the biggest fall since records began in 1955.

Liam Byrne, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said that he was cautious but confident that growth was going to return at the end of the year.

“We are not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination, but what today’s figures show is that the pace of the downturn is easing,” he said.

The BBC’s economic editor Stephanie Flanders was less upbeat.

“Anyone who was worried about the momentum of the recovery before will be that much more concerned now,” she observed.

“Not least, because the recovery has yet to actually show its face.

“”t makes it that much less likely that the Treasury will hit its forecast for 2009 of a 3.5% decline overall. From where we are now, you would need growth of maybe 1.5% or more in both of the second quarters to make the numbers add up.”

‘Out of abyss’

Hetal Mehta, senior economic advisor to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club, said that the data showed that hopes for a recovery had run ahead of reality.

The bottom line was that today’s number is pretty dire, and a sharp wake-up call for anyone who had already been dreaming of recovery Colin Ellis, Daiwa Securities Small firms help to drive economy Stephanomics: The shrinking economy

“With credit still severely restricted, consumers and businesses continuing to retrench and world trade yet to pick up, it is hard to see any grounds for sustained optimism at the moment,” she said.

The decline in economic output was driven by business services and finances, a sector that has been hit hard by the financial crisis.

“We are clearly out of the abyss but still have a difficult time ahead,” said Brian Hilliard, economist at Societe Generale.

Industry groups called on the Bank of England to continue its actions to stimulate the economy.

“There is no room for complacency and suggestions of suspending quantitative easing are misguided. It is important to persevere with an aggressive policy stimulus to ensure that the economic downturn does not worsen,” said David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce.

An advisor to the central bank had suggested on Thursday that the Bank may put its asset purchasing on hold.

Harder to balance?

According to the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR), the worse-than-expected figures make it unlikely that the Treasury will be able to meet its own economic forecasts.

In the Budget, the Treasury forecast the economy would decline by between 3.25% to 3.75% in 2009 and missing this target would make it harder for the Treasury to balance its books.

“For this to now happen would require a remarkable bounce back in the second half of the year with growth of around 1.5% of the remaining two quarters,” said Richard Snook, senior economist at the CEBR.

“Weaker growth than the chancellor expects means that public sector net borrowing will exceed the £175 bn projected for the 2009/10 fiscal year,” he added.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber warned against spending cuts to curb borrowing.

“They could tip the economy into an ever deeper downturn and make the deficit worse when the tax take falls and spending on unemployment goes up. With consumers and companies failing to spend, the public sector must fill the gap,” he said.

The release is the ONS’s earliest estimate of gross domestic product and the figure is often revised as data for the full three months is not yet available for every sector of the economy.

“The bottom line was that today’s number is pretty dire, and a sharp wake-up call for anyone who had already been dreaming of recovery,” said Colin Ellis at Daiwa Securities.

Car scrappage schemes are already operating in other countries

The US government has unveiled details of its car scrappage scheme, aimed at persuading owners of “gas-guzzling” cars to exchange them for greener ones.

The $1bn programme, which runs until 1 November, offers vouchers worth up to $4,500 for people scrapping vehicles that do fewer than 18 miles per gallon.

They must buy a new car with a rating of at least 22 mpg or a light truck that manages at least 18 mpg.

Similar schemes in Europe have helped ailing firms sell more cars.

The carmaking industry has suffered worldwide from the economic downturn, which has pushed two of the big three US auto firms into bankruptcy protection.

Approved dealers

In order to qualify for the vouchers, car owners must visit the official Car Allowance Rebate System website (www.cars.gov) to find a list of approved dealers.

Vehicles to be traded in should be drivable, less than 25 years old and have been insured and registered to their owners for at least a year.

The replacement vehicle must be brand-new and should have a retail price of no more than $45,000.

Neither the old car nor the new one has to be US-made. The scheme covers domestic and foreign-made vehicles alike.

As the website makes clear, the stated purpose of the scheme is to promote fuel efficiency.

“Oil is a non-renewable resource and we cannot sustain our current rate of use indefinitely. Using it wisely now allows us time to find alternative technologies and fuels that will be more sustainable,” it says.

However, similar schemes in other countries, notably the UK and Germany, have acted as a stimulus to the economy by boosting car sales and production.

The plane had been due to make its maiden flight in March

Defence ministers from seven European nations have pledged to continue to support the much delayed Airbus A400M military transport aircraft project.

The ministers from Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Turkey and the UK now hope to agree a new contract for the plane by the end of the year.

There had been fears that some countries would decide to walk away from the troubled project.

The A400M’s maiden flight is a year late due to technical and budget woes.

A second deadline of March this year was also missed.

The plane is not now due to take to the skies until the end of this year.

‘Good news’

“We hope to save the programme. We have decided to open a renegotiation,” said the UK’s Defence Procurement Minister Quentin Davies.

The A400M is Airbus’ equivalent to Boeing’s delayed 787 Dreamliner Aviation analyst Saj Ahmad

The A400M project was launched in 2003, with orders for 180 planes so far.

The plane was designed as a replacement for the main Nato military transport aircraft, the US-built Lockheed Martin Hercules.

“I am convinced this programme will be re-launched, which will be good news for the trade balance of our countries because I am convinced it has enormous export potential,” said French Defence Minister Herve Morin.

Aviation analyst Saj Ahmad of FleetBuzz Editorial said Airbus will find itself under “immense pressure” to deliver to the new contractual arrangements.

“The A400M is Airbus’ equivalent to Boeing’s delayed 787 Dreamliner,” he added.

“However, the key difference is that Boeing was caught out just prior to the 787 first flight, the A400M hasn’t even been in proximity of a runway.”

China’s only children are often spoiled “little emperors”

Officials in Shanghai are urging parents to have a second child, the first time in decades the government has actively encouraged procreation.

A public information campaign has been launched to highlight exemptions to the country’s one-child policy.

Couples who were both only children, which includes most of the city’s newly-weds, are allowed a second child.

The move comes as China’s most populous city becomes richer and older, with the number of retired residents soaring.

“Shanghai’s over-60 population already exceeds three million, or 21.6% of registered residents,” said Zhang Meixin, a spokesman for the city’s Municipal Population and Family Planning Commission.

Leaflet campaign

He said the current average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime was less than one.

ANALYSIS Micky Bristow, BBC News Chinese and foreign experts have been saying for some time that China needs to change its strict family planning rules. If the country continues as it is, the proportion of elderly people in society will continue to increase. This is a problem because it will leave a smaller group of workers paying for the country’s retired population. But central government officials have consistently ruled out changing the national family planning policy. They still believe that China has too many people - an opinion shared by almost everyone in the country. That has left individual cities, such as Shanghai, to think up ways of coping with their own ageing communities.

“If all couples have children according to the policy, it would definitely help relieve pressure in the long term,” he added.

Decades of a strictly enforced one-child policy has produced new strains across the population and prompted exceptions in some family categories. Rural parents are also allowed to have a second child, if the first-born is a girl.

In Shanghai, family planning officials and volunteers will make home visits and slip leaflets under doors to encourage couples to have a second child if both grew up as only children.

Emotional and financial counselling will also be provided, officials said.

By 2020, the country’s most populous city is expected to have more than a third of residents aged 60 or above.

Policy relaxed

According to the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, by 2050 the country will have just 1.6 working-age adults to support each retired person, compared to 7.7 in 1975.

The state-controlled newspaper China Daily quoted one salesman who said he was cheered by the new attitude.

CHINA’S ONE-CHILD POLICY Written into the constitution in 1978 Government says has prevented about 400 million births Many rural couples allowed second child if first is a girl Parents who are themselves only children can have two children Ethnic minority couples allowed two or more children Has the one-child policy worked? China’s ‘perfect child’ generation Grey areas in one-child policy Send us your comments

“I’m not sure, but such policy really gives us one more option. If family finance permits, I want to have two kids with my wife in the future,” said 25-year-old Xiao Wang, who works at a local company.

Others were less enthusiastic.

“I don’t think we will have a second kid,” said 26-year-old Xiao Chen, an office worker. “After all, it is stressful work raising a child.”

Couples who ignore China’s birth control policies usually pay fines and may face discrimination at work.

The many only children of China have earned the nickname of “little emperors” for the love and treats lavished upon them.

China’s birth-control policies have been hugely controversial at home and abroad, as enforcement has involved forced abortions and other abuses.

It has also been blamed for a gender imbalance, as a traditional preference for boys has persuaded some parents to abort girl foetuses.

The bombing of a London bus took place outside the doctors’ union

Doctors need more training to deal with the victims of bomb blasts given the current threat of terrorism, a Lancet paper says.

The injuries wrought by explosive devices are unique and the chances of survival depend greatly on recognition, US doctors write.

From air entering the arteries to serious damage to the bowel wall, the wounds can be diverse.

UK experts agreed there was an urgent need to understand these injuries.

Figures on terrorism are notoriously controversial in part due to varied definitions of what constitutes a terrorist act.

But doctors from the Denver Health Medical Center cite “conservative estimates” suggesting such events have risen four-fold from 1999 to 2006 worldwide.

“Special-interest, militant, and extremist groups have realised the profound effect explosions can have in civilian settings. Nightclubs, trains, subways, planes, and other popular sites have been targeted in recent years by these groups and caused substantial civilian casualties,” wrote lead author Stephen Wolf, an emergency medicine specialist.

“Health-care systems must be able to provide care for the people and communities that are affected. Thus, every physician involved with emergency care needs to understand the unique injury patterns and management of people injured by an explosion.”

Pressure wave

It is the pressure caused by blasts as air is displaced - generating winds of of several hundred km/h - that causes injury. If a person is standing next to a wall or in a contained space the blast pressure is intensified as the wave “reflects back”.

This pressure can causes immense damage within the body, particularly those with a direct airway outside the body, for instance the gastrointestinal system and the lungs.

Between 17 and 47% of people who die after an explosion have evidence of these pressure injuries in their lungs.

The doctors highlight the problem of potentially fatal arterial air embolisms, when air enter the arteries - seriously reducing blood supply.

Most important of all, I believe, is the understanding that blast injury usually occurs in the context of a mass casualty incident, the logistics of which are vastly different than the care of an individual patient Pinhas Halperin Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center

In the gastrointestinal system, blast injuries can cause damage to the bowel wall and disrupt blood flow to the intestines, requiring particular care.

In the UK, which has a longer history of bomb attacks than the US, there has long been recognition of the need to understand the specific nature of bomb wounds, experts say.

“But there is now an increased risk, and doctors need to be prepared to manage such cases. This paper provides a level of detail which really raises the bar,” says Dr John Heyworth, president of the College of Emergency Medicine.

“It has to be a key part of training. Of course you’d hope you would never need it, but doctors often have to be well versed in things that they may never in fact see in the course of their career.”

Bombings in London four years ago led to calls for all doctors to receive more training in blast wounds. Non-emergency doctors were among the first on the scene when a bus exploded outside BMA House, home of the doctors’ union.

But one specialist from Israel said his country’s experience illustrated that good organisation was as crucial as the knowledge and understanding of the injuries inflicted, and potentially more difficult to achieve.

“Most important of all, I believe, is the understanding that blast injury usually occurs in the context of a mass casualty incident, the logistics of which are vastly different than the care of an individual patient, and this is the emphasis we are bringing forward: how to provide the best of care under adverse conditions,” said Dr Pinhas Halperin, head of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center.

“We assume that the medical aspects are easily learned, while the organisational aspects, the functioning of the individual in the context, need constant drilling beyond the normal scope of training of both doctors and paramedics.”

Some margarines contain linoleic acid

A high intake of polyunsaturated fat in the diet, while good for the heart, may lead to inflammatory bowel disease, say researchers.

Experts believe a high intake of linoleic acid, found in foods like “healthy” margarines, may be implicated in a third of ulcerative colitis cases.

The researchers base their findings, due to be published in Gut, on food diaries from more than 200,000 people.

If the link proves to be causal, some people might want to modify their diet.

There is good biological plausibility of why linoleic acid can cause inflamation, and certainly Western diets are often excessive in this kind of fat Dr Anton Emmanual Core

The researchers also found that a diet rich in another type of fat, omega 3 fatty acid found in oily fish such as salmon and herring, reduced the likelihood of developing ulcerative colitis by 77%.

Linoleic acid is a naturally occurring essential fatty acid, present in a variety of foods, including the oils of seeds and nuts, such as sunflower, safflower, soya, corn seeds or walnut oils.

The multinational team working on the EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) study say there is a plausible biological mechanism that could explain why linoleic acid is linked with this bowel condition.

Cell membranes

Once in the body, linoleic acid is converted to arachidonic acid, which is a component of the cell membranes in the bowel.

Arachidonic acid can then be converted into various inflammatory chemicals, high levels of which have been found in the bowel tissue of patients with ulcerative colitis.

In all, 126 of the people in the study developed ulcerative colitis after an average period of four years.

After adjusting for other factors likely to influence the results, including smoking, age, total energy intake, and use of aspirin, those whose diets included the most linoleic acid were more than twice as likely to develop the condition as those whose diets contained the least.

Lead researcher Dr Andrew Hart of the University of East Anglia, Norwich, said: “There are no dietary modifications of benefit in patients with ulcerative colitis, although, based on this study’s findings, a diet low in linoleic acid may merit investigation.”

In the UK, people consume on average about 10g per day of linoleic acid, found in around nine level teaspoons of polyunsaturated margarine or three teaspoons of sunflower oil.

In the study, the people who consumed the most linoleic acid had a daily intake three times this or more.

Biologically plausible

Dr Anton Emmanual, medical director of the digestive disorders charity Core, stressed that the study did not prove that linoleic acid caused bowel disorders, and warned that dietary diaries could be unreliable.

However, he said: “Nevertheless there is good biological plausibility of why linoleic acid can cause inflamation, and certainly Western diets are often excessive in this kind of fat.

“The omega 3 fish oils counteract the harmful effects of lineloic acid it would be helpful to see whether diets high in fish oils reduce colitis.

“Lineloic acid may have small part to play in some patients, but factors such as smoking, bacteria and stress are likely to be at least as important.”

Professor Jon Rhodes, of the British Society of Gastroenterology, said the study was interesting, but also stressed it did not prove cause and effect - further tightly controlled studies would be needed to do that.

Dr Elisabeth Weichselbaum, of the British Nutrition Foundation, said the study was interesting.

But added: “The results need to be interpreted with caution.

“People who have very high intakes of omega-6 fats are likely to have a generally different diet from those with low intakes. Therefore, it may as well be possible that there are other factors that could have an effect.”

It was thought adult heart muscle cells could not divide

Scientists say they have found a new way to mend damage to the heart.

When cells turn into fully-formed adult heart muscle they stop dividing, and cannot replace tissue damaged by disease or deformity.

But a US team have found a way to coax the cells to start dividing again, raising hopes they could be used to regenerate healthy tissue.

The study, carried out on mice and rats by Children’s Hospital Boston, appears in the journal Cell.

If the same mechanisms identified by the researchers can be shown to work in the human heart, it opens up real possibilities for new and more efficient ways to treat people with heart disease Professor Jeremy Pearson British Heart Foundation

The researchers say their work could provide an alternative to stem cell therapy, which is still largely untested, and carries a potential risk of side effects.

In theory, it could be used to treat heart attack patients, those with heart failure and children with congenital heart defects.

The key ingredient is a growth factor known as neuregulin1 (NRG1).

The Boston team envisages patients going to a clinic for daily infusions of NRG1 over a period of weeks.

However, researcher Dr Bernhard Kühn said more work to establish the safety of the therapy was needed before it could be tested in humans.

Changes after birth

It has long been thought that the heart was incapable of repairing itself.

Heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) proliferate during prenatal development, but were thought to lose that ability shortly after birth.

However, recent research has indicated that the adult cells do have some ability to replace themselves at a low level.

The latest study provides firm evidence that this is true - and that NRG1 can ramp up the process significantly.

The Boston team tested the ability of various molecules to spur cell division in cultured cardiomyocytes, including several factors known to drive proliferation of the cells during prenatal development.

NRG1 produced the most significant effect, and it was repeated when the factor was injected into adult mice.

When administered to animals who had suffered a heart attack, it promoted regeneration of heart muscle, and improved the overall function of the organ.

The researchers said it was not clear if NRG1 is directly responsible for the natural repair process - but their findings show it can clearly enhance it.

Writing in the journal, they said: “We have identified the major elements of a new approach to promote myocardial regeneration.

“Many efforts and important advances have been made toward the goal of developing stem-cell based strategies to regenerate damaged tissues in the heart as well as in other organs.

“The work presented here suggests that stimulating differentiated cardiomyocytes to proliferate may be a viable alternative.”

The next stage will be to test the therapy in pigs, which have more in common with humans than rodents do.

Professor Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said: “This fascinating study shows, remarkably, that a significant fraction of adult heart cells in mice can be made to replicate and help to repair damaged hearts.

“If the same mechanisms identified by the researchers can be shown to work in the human heart, it opens up real possibilities for new and more efficient ways to treat people with heart disease.”

Amy Winehouse said she wanted to put the matter behind her

Singer Amy Winehouse has been found not guilty of assaulting a burlesque dancer at a charity ball in central London.

She was accused of punching Sherene Flash after she asked the singer for a photograph at the event in Berkeley Square last September.

The singer was accused of hitting Miss Flash in the eye when the dancer’s friend tried to get into the photo, the court heard.

Ms Winehouse denied assault at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

Summing up the evidence, District Judge Timothy Workman said all but two witnesses in the trial were drunk at the time of the incident.

“The two accounts are irreconcilable and I have had therefore to examine carefully the evidence of other witnesses.”

‘Maintained her innocence’

The judge said the medical evidence presented by the prosecution did not show “the sort of injury that often occurs when there is a forceful punch to the eye”.

As she left the courtroom, Ms Winehouse told reporters: “I’m relieved. I’m going home.”

Moments before the fracas, Ms Flash asked to take a photograph of the singer in a dressing room after midnight on 26 September.

The court heard the situation worsened when a drunken friend of the dancer tried to get into the photo.

But Ms Winehouse insisted the incident was blown out of all proportion.

A spokesman for Amy Winehouse said: “She has always maintained her innocence and is very happy to move on with her life and put the episode behind her.”

The singer said she had gone to the event to support her goddaughter who was performing there.

It may become a criminal offence to infringe on “historical memory” about WWII

What is worrying Russia? Why is the country convinced that it is the victim of a campaign to make it look bad?

President Dmitry Medvedev recently announced the setting up of a commission to counter the falsification of history. He said this was becoming increasingly “severe, evil, and aggressive”.

Dmitry Medvedev believes there is an anti-Russian bias in the Western media

“This is absolute poppycock,” says Robert Service, professor of Russian History at Oxford University. “History is all about argument. There is no absolute historical truth about anything big in history.”

Mr Service dismisses the Russian leader’s suggestion that his country is facing some kind of academic aggression.

Instead, he sees a desire to dominate, worthy of the most repressive totalitarian regimes of fiction.

“President Medvedev, following in the path of his predecessor President [Vladimir] Putin, wants to control history,” he says.

“And he wants to control history as a means of controlling the present. This is the classic George Orwell scenario.”

‘Hysterical reaction’

Many Russians, though, agree with their president.

Natalia Narochnitskaya, a former deputy in the Russian parliament and now a member of the new Historical Truth Commission, says that she is surprised by what she terms the “almost hysterical reaction” in the West.

“In the Western media especially, there is a certain prejudice against Russia and Russian history,” she says.

“They always feel that Russia since, you know, Ivan the Terrible, is a certain country which is off the European civilisation.”

In August there will be such a yelling about the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, saying that that was the step that led to the Second World War Natalia Narochnitskaya, member of the Historical Truth Commission

Ask a few more questions, though, and these two apparently separate views begin to converge.

At least, they agree on what the key issue is - World War II. And here lies the clue as to the real reason for the establishment of the new commission.

This is what appears to anger today’s Russian historical establishment: accounts of Red Army crimes on the march to Berlin; assertions by the Baltic countries and others in Eastern Europe that Soviet forces came as occupiers as much as liberators; any suggestion that Stalin’s Soviet Union and Nazi Germany were anything but complete opposites and bitter enemies.

Here, perhaps, there is a clue as to the timing of the commission’s founding.

Next month sees the 70th anniversary of the non-aggression pact between the USSR and Hitler’s Germany, something Ms Narochnitskaya expects the West to make a lot of noise about.

“In August there will be such a yelling about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, saying that that was the step that led to the Second World War, and that Germany and the Soviet Union were two equal, disgusting, totalitarian monsters.”

Nationalist sentiment

Why does this matter today? Do these arguments have any great importance beyond the walls of universities? In Russia, the answer is yes.

So many people are speaking about strong, Orthodox Russia, military power… The commission is partly a response to this atmosphere Tamara Eidelman Moscow history teacher

The country sees its victory over Hitler’s forces as the greatest moment of the 20th Century.

The war is sometimes discussed in the news media as if it were a recent event, not increasingly distant history.

Any attempt to tarnish the glory of that triumph is seen as a deliberate attempt to make Russia look bad.

Russia’s past haunts its present. Recognising that, the authorities want to rule the version of the past which dominates today.

Tamara Eidelman, who teaches history at a Moscow High School, feels surrounded by nationalist sentiment.

“So many people are speaking about strong, Orthodox Russia, military power,” she says.

The authorities want to rule the version of the past which dominates today

“It is something that is very strong in historical tradition and in popular opinion. This commission is partly a response to this atmosphere.”

The creation of this commission seems to go to the heart of what troubles modern Russia.

The chaos which followed the collapse of communism left many Russians deeply distrustful of politics and officialdom.

President Medvedev has complained of the corruption and “legal nihilism” which plague his country.

Russia’s leaders today know that they need this shining, sacred, memory of victory to give their people something to believe in.

In the near future, it may even be backed up in law.

The Russian parliament is on its summer break at the moment, but legislation is being considered - legislation that would make it a criminal offence to “infringe on historical memory in relation to events which took place in the Second World War”.

James Rodgers was formerly the BBC’s Moscow correspondent.