Sarah Waters, Colm Tobin, JM Coetzee and AS Byatt have been longlisted for the 2009 Man Booker Prize.

This year’s “exceptional” list of 13 titles is dominated by established writers, including two former winners, and four past-shortlisted authors.

Coetzee, nominated for Summertime, won the prize in 1983 and 1999, while Byatt triumphed in 1990 with Possession.

James Naughtie, chair of the judges, said: “We believe it to be one of the strongest lists in recent memory.”

The broadcaster added that the “span of styles and themes” made it an “outstandingly rich fictional mix”.

BOOKER LONGLIST 2009 AS Byatt - The Children’s Book JM Coetzee - Summertime Adam Foulds - The Quickening Maze Sarah Hall - How to paint a dead man Samantha Harvey - The Wilderness James Lever - Me Cheeta Hilary Mantel - Wolf Hall Simon Mawer - The Glass Room Ed O’Loughlin - Not Untrue & Not Unkind James Scudamore - Heliopolis Colm Toibin - Brooklyn William Trevor - Love and Summer Sarah Waters - The Little Stranger

It also feature three first-time novelists.

The winner of the £50,000 award, which honours the best fiction written in English by an author from the UK, Ireland or the Commonwealth, will be named in October. A shortlist of six will be revealed on 8 September.

Naughtie said: “We considered more than 130 novels and found ourselves travelling in a fertile landscape.

“We kept discovering new talent as well as reacquainting ourselves with familiar writers, and emerged with a feeling that we were part of an exceptional year.

“Our fiction is in the hands of original and dedicated writers with fresh and appealing voices.

“This is an eclectic list, taking us from the court of Henry VIII to the Hollywood jungle, with stops along the way in a 19th century Essex asylum, an African warzone and a futuristic Brazilian city among other places.

“These are books that readers will want to get their hands on.”

Naughtie is joined on the judging panel by biographer and critic Lucasta Miller; Michael Prodger, Literary Editor of The Sunday Telegraph; Professor John Mullan, academic, journalist and broadcaster and Sue Perkins, comedian, journalist and broadcaster.

Aravind Adiga won the Man Booker Prize 2008 for his debut novel The White Tiger.

England have fought off rival bids from South Africa and Italy to win the right to stage the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

It will be the second time England have hosted the competition, the last time being in 1991.

The International Rugby Board (IRB) also announced that Japan will be hosts for the event in 2019.

The IRB voted 16-10 in favour of rubber-stamping the recommendation from Rugby World Cup Ltd (RWCL) that England and Japan should be named hosts.

The announcement by IRB chairman Bernard Lapasset had been widely expected after RWCL, the IRB-controlled company that oversees the tournaments, last month endorsed England and Japan as the strongest bidders.

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) chairman Martyn Thomas called the decision “a relief, and also great joy for England”.

PREVIOUS WORLD CUP HOSTS 1987: New Zealand (co-host with Australia) 1991: England 1995: South Africa 1999: Wales 2003: Australia 2007: France 2011: New Zealand

“We have been trusted with making a great competition and providing a great spectacle, and delivering what the IRB needs in terms of host revenue,” said Thomas.

“Australia did an immense job [in 2003], France raised the bar [in 2007] and we have got to raise it again. We have got some very iconic stadia and it will be tremendous for world rugby and immense for participtation in England.”

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) has said England will lay on the biggest World Cup to date, generating a surplus at least £60m bigger than that of the other bids. It says three million people will watch the games live at stadiums such as Wembley, Anfield, Old Trafford and Twickenham.

The only stadium outside England to host matches will be Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, which will stage two quarter-finals and some pool matches.

However, IRB chief executive Mike Miller confirmed England’s plan to use the Millennium Stadium must still be ratified by the RWCL board - and that may not happen until next March.

606: DEBATE Well done IRB you made the right decision OnlyJoeQuin

The RFU must make a proposal to the IRB and provide compelling reasons that meet specific criteria that are in the best interests of the game globally for taking matches outside of England.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said it was a “fantastic achievement” to win the bid and congratulated the RFU on their success.

“I’m sure the whole country will want to play their part in making this the most memorable of Rugby World Cups,” he added.

The event will form part of what Brown has labelled a “golden decade” of sport in the UK.

“The Rugby World Cup is yet another tremendous event to add to the country’s decade of sport and another chance to show our nation’s passion for sport and what world class facilities we have to offer. I’m sure it will be a tournament to remember,” said Brown.

THE UK GOLDEN DECADE OF SPORT 2010: Ryder Cup, Celtic Manor 2011: Champions League final, Wembley 2012: Olympic Games, London 2013: Rugby League World Cup 2014: Ryder Cup, Gleneagles; Commonwealth Games, Glasgow 2015: Rugby World Cup 2019: Cricket World Cup ADDITIONAL BID 2018 Football World Cup

RFU chairman Thomas also offered his condolences to unsuccessful rival bidders South Africa and Italy.

“We have been there before [to France for the 2007 RWC], we know how they are feeling,” said Thomas.

South Africa, in particular, were upset at losing out on the recommendation of the RWCL, and had been lobbying hard ahead of Tuesday’s meeting.

They had pressed home the fact they had secured government support totalling £130m - £50m more than the tournament fee - compared to the £25m Westminster has made available to the RFU.

England’s package is projected to generate 300 million pounds for the IRB, who rely on the tournament for 98 percent of their income.

On top of the £80m tournament fee, the UK market would attract a further 220 million pounds in commercial returns from broadcasting, sponsorship and merchandising which is understood to be at least 20 percent more than the bids from either South Africa or Italy.

England’s Martyn Thomas (L) and Japan’s Noboru Mashimo (R) celebrate the vote result

The IRB hope 2015 will bolster revenues from the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand - which is currently estimated to make an operating loss of between £20-30m.

This will then be used as a springboard to take the sport into the emerging market of Japan four years later.

Japan’s bid leaders expressed delight at winning Tuesday’s vote to stage the 2019 event and become the tournament’s first Asian hosts.

They narrowly missing out to New Zealand for the rights to stage the event in 2011.

“The God of rugby smiled on us today,” said Japan Rugby Football Union (JRFU) president Yoshiro Mori. “I am filled with emotion to be a part of this historic day for Japan and for rugby around the world.”

“Japan has much to offer the rugby World Cup. We have a superb transport system, strong infrastructure and world-class stadiums.

“We are honoured to welcome the global rugby family to our country and for the first time ever to Asia.”

US house prices increased for the first time in 34 months

US house prices have seen their first monthly increase in nearly three years, according to a leading property index.

Prices rose 0.5% in May from April, the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price index said. Analysts had forecast a 0.5% monthly drop.

The index committee’s chairman said it could be a sign that declines in house prices are stabilising.

But consumer confidence fell more than expected in July as the job market remain tough, a survey indicated.

The Conference Board, an industry group, said its index of consumer attitudes slid to 46.6 in July from 49.3 in June.

Economists had expected a reading of 49.0, based on the median of 64 forecasts in a Reuters poll.

‘Broad increase’

House prices were down 17.1% on a year ago, but the annual rate of decline has now slowed for four months in a row.

In April, prices were down 18.1% from the same point in 2008.

The S&P/Case-Shiller index records prices in 20 of the largest cities in the US. In May, 17 of the 20 cities showed improved annual price changes.

“To put it into perspective, this is the first time we have seen broad increases in home prices in 34 months,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P.

Sector improvement?

However, some analysts were still downbeat in their outlook for the housing market.

“We believe that there will be a continued decline in US real estate over the next year or two,” said Chad Morganlander from Stifel, Nicolaus & Co.

“We do not expect an improvement in prices any time soon.”

On Monday, government figures showed the annual rate of new home sales in the US jumped 11% in June - the biggest increase since November 2008.

However, the median sale price was $206,200 (£125,000), down 5.8% from May and 12% lower than a year ago.

Last week, the National Association of Realtors said that sales of previously-owned US homes had risen for the third month in a row in June, and at a faster rate than expected.

BP is the UK’s largest oil company

Lower oil prices in the global downturn have led to second-quarter profits at BP more than halving from a year ago.

Its replacement cost profit between April and June was $3.1bn (£1.9bn), down 53% from $6.75bn a year earlier.

Oil prices have hovered at between $60 and $70 a barrel recently - well off the high of $147 seen last July, but up from the $30 lows of earlier this year.

Chief executive Tony Hayward said the firm expected the global economic recovery to be “long and drawn out”.

‘We are in turbulent times, volatile and uncertain. But we continue to steer a steady course through choppy waters,” he added.

The results took BP’s half-year profits to $5.5bn, down 57% from the first six months of 2008.

However, its second-quarter profit was up 30% from the first three months of the year.

Cost cuts

Daily production rose by 4% in the three months to the end of June, BP said.

REPLACEMENT COST PROFIT Replacement cost profit is the reporting measure typically used by oil companies and reflects the current cost of supplies The measure strips out gains or losses related to any changes in the value of the firm’s stock of fuel products

This figure is being closely monitored by analysts to see how output cuts by oil producer cartel Opec and attacks by militants in Nigeria have hit growth in the sector as a whole.

BP said that it had already achieved the $2bn in cost-cutting it had aimed for in 2009, and was expecting to save a further $1bn during the rest of the year.

Last month, the company appointed Carl-Henric Svanberg, the Ericsson chief executive, as its new chairman to replace Sir Peter Sutherland.

Mr Svanberg is joining at a challenging time for the firm after almost 40% of investors voted against BP’s remuneration report at its annual meeting.

BP’s rivals, including Royal Dutch Shell, are set to report their results in the coming days. Richard Hunter of Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers said BP had “thrown down the gauntlet to the rest of the oil supermajors”.

“The reduction of the headline figure is of little surprise given the more recent lows which the oil price is experiencing,” he said.

“Nonetheless, the company has been far from resting on its laurels given this backdrop.”

China and US say they have found common ground but differences remain

US and Chinese officials, meeting in Washington, are to discuss the need for emerging economies to have more say in the world’s financial system.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is meeting Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan for a second day of high-level talks between the two countries.

They will also discuss the world trade system and ways to cooperate to prevent a repeat of the economic crisis.

China also expressed concern about the dollar’s role in the financial system.

Mr Geithner said the two countries were committed to building a strong and stable financial system that would lead to more balanced global growth.

KEY ISSUES Values of dollar and yuan The US will press China to rely less on exports and more on domestic consumption China will push for the US to make curbing inflation a priority Both sides will seek reassurances over accusations of trade protectionism North Korea and Iran’s nuclear programmes Climate change and clean energy

“Today, we will discuss governance reforms to help the IFIs (international financial institutions) be more representative of dynamic emerging economies, as well as strengthen their capacity to prevent future crises,” he added.

China has long called for greater say at the International Monetary Fund and other bodies.

The two will also discuss ways to prevent the financial crisis leading to a rise in protectionism.

“We call on China and the United States to refrain from taking any protectionist measures,” Mr Wang said before the talks re-convened behind closed doors.

Secretary Hillary Clinton was leading a separate set of discussions at the State Department that were expected to focus on North Korea.

The two-day Strategic and Economic Dialogue, as the talks are known, will conclude later with a news conference.

Differences

While the two sides appear to have found common ground in public, analysts say that differences remain.

In particular, China is worried about the value of the US dollar.

It holds huge amounts of US debt - more than $800bn (£486bn) of US Treasury securities alone.

It fears Mr Obama’s stimulus spending will stoke inflation in the United States, eroding the value of the dollar and making the US debt China holds worth a lot less.

“As a major reserve currency-issuing country in the world, the US should properly balance and properly handle the impact of the dollar supply on the domestic economy and the world economy as a whole,” Mr Wang said.

Meanwhile, US manufacturers complain they cannot compete fairly with their Chinese competitors, accusing Beijing of deliberately devaluing its currency to make its exports seem cheaper.

The rats developed a blue tinge after treatment

A dye similar to that used in sweets may potentially minimise the severity of spinal cord injuries.

A cascade of molecular changes triggered in the hours following an initial injury can cause further severe damage to the spinal cord.

But US researchers found this can be halted by using a dye known as Brilliant Blue G (BBG).

However, rats given the treatment in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study turned blue.

Our hope is that this work will lead to a practical, safe agent that can be given to patients shortly after injury Professor Steven Goldman University of Rochester

The researchers, from the University of Rochester, hope their work might eventually provide a way to minimise the risk of paralysis following a traumatic injury to the spine.

But they stress that much work will be required to come up with a practical treatment.

And the treatment would only work if it was administered in the hours immediately after an injury.

However, researcher Professor Steven Goldman said: “We have no effective treatment now for patients who have an acute spinal cord injury.

“Our hope is that this work will lead to a practical, safe agent that can be given to patients shortly after injury, for the purpose of decreasing the secondary damage that we have to otherwise expect.”

Cells over-stimulated

The Rochester team had previously shown that ATP, a vital energy source that keeps the body’s cells alive, quickly pours into the area surrounding a spinal cord injury after it occurs.

Spinal injuries can be very difficult to treat

Unfortunately, the release of ATP at hundreds of times the normal level kills off healthy, uninjured motor neurone cells by flooding them with a deluge of molecular signals, making the initial injury worse.

The researchers went on to inject rats with damaged spinal cords with oxidized ATP, a compound known to block ATP’s effects.

The animals were able to recover much of their lost limb function, to the point of being able to walk again.

However, oxidized ATP carries a risk of dangerous side effects.

It also had to be injected directly into the site of a wound to achieve results - not a practical option for treating spinal injury patients.

The beauty of BBG - the chemical equivalent of blue food dye No1 - is that it could potentially be given as a standard injection, away from the wound itself.

In tests on rats, an injection of BBG produced very similar effects to those achieved by oxidized ATP.

There was just one curious side effect - the animals temporarily developed a blue tinge to their skin.

Large dose

Dr Mark Bacon, head of research at the charity Spinal Research, said: “There may be little we can do to stop the initial traumatic injury but we can certainly look to stop the insidious secondary damage that occurs in the spinal cord in the hours and days immediately afterwards.

“What we appear to have here is a promising lead in this quest for so-called neuroprotective treatments.

“The fact that it is a known, approved food colourant would, on the face of it, appear to make this a compelling starting point.

“However, the levels ingested in food stuffs don’t make us go blue, as is the case in the group’s experimental studies on rats, suggesting the therapeutic dose needed to protect the spinal cord from ATP toxicity is far, far higher than that experienced in daily life.

“What is safe at one dose may not be safe at higher doses - many drugs have failed because they reach a toxicity threshold before they ever reach therapeutic levels.”

Stressful relationships can be bad for your health

Divorce has a lingering, detrimental impact on health that even remarriage cannot fully repair, a study suggests.

A Chicago study involving 8,652 people aged 51 to 61 found divorced people have 20% more chronic illnesses such as cancer than those who never marry.

The figure only drops to 12% for those who remarry, researchers write in the Journal of Health and Social Behaviour.

They say we start adulthood with a “health stock” that is kept or eroded depending on our marital experience.

Only those who are continuously married can expect the same rate of chronic health problems as the never-wedded, the study suggests.

It’s another reason to work hard to make marriages last, unless it is a very destructive relationship Christine Northan, a counsellor for Relate

Although people who remarry after a divorce or being widowed do tend to be happier as a result - being no more depressed than those continuously married and less depressed than those who never married - they gain little in terms of chronic health conditions.

People who remarried had 12% more chronic health conditions than those continuously married, which was slightly less than the 20% for the divorced or widowed who did not remarry.

Researcher Dr Linda Waite, a sociologist at the University of Chicago, said divorce or widowhood undermines health because incomes drop and stress develops over issues such as shared child care.

Stresses and strains

Whereas marriage tends to bring an immediate health benefit, in that it improves health behaviours for men and financial well-being for women.

But remarriage does not heal all.

She said: “Some health situations, like depression, seem to respond both quickly and strongly to changes in current conditions.

“In contrast, conditions such as diabetes and heart disease develop slowly over a substantial period and show the impact of past experiences, which is why health is undermined by divorce or widowhood, even when a person remarries.”

Anastasia de Waal, of the think tank Civitas, said: “This research highlights the fact that whilst divorce has become much more common, it can take not just a tremendous emotional and financial toll, but also a heavy health one.”

Christine Northan, a counsellor for Relate, said: “I’m not surprised by the findings. It’s another reason to work hard to make marriages last, unless it is a very destructive relationship.

“It’s a good idea if you can use a messy divorce to understand both yourself better and why the relationship did not work.

“If you do that, you will be in a better place to go into a second successful marriage.

“But if you are drawn to people who are toxic for you, then you may be better off staying single.”

She said a surprising number of people unconsciously look for someone like their first wife or husband and that the chance of a second marriage ending in divorce was two-fold.

Milk is a good source of calcium

Children who eat plenty of dairy foods such as milk and cheese can expect to live longer, a study suggests.

Some 4,374 UK children from a 1930s study were traced 65 years later by researchers in Bristol and Queensland.

They found those who had had high dairy and calcium intakes as children had been protected against stroke and other causes of death, journal Heart reports.

Despite dairy containing artery furring fat and cholesterol, high consumption did not raise the heart disease risk.

The findings appear to back the practice of giving extra milk to schoolchildren.

Protective

The study looked at family diets and found higher intakes of both calcium and dairy, predominantly from milk, cut mortality by a quarter.

A higher daily intake of calcium, of at least 400mg as found in just over half a pint of milk, cut the chance of dying from stroke by as much as 60%.

We need to take a further look to really assess the benefits of milk in reducing the chances of dying from stroke Joanne Murphy of The Stroke Association

These beneficial effects were seen at estimated intake levels similar to those currently recommended by experts.

Three servings of dairy foods - for example, a 200ml glass of milk, a pot of yogurt and a small piece of cheese - will provide all the calcium most people need each day.

Other factors may play a part - though researchers say they took into account that children with the highest dairy intakes came from wealthier families and ate better diets overall - but there is evidence that high calcium intake is good for blood pressure.

Balance

Prolonged high blood pressure increases the risk of stroke.

Dairy consumption may also influence heart and circulation health through a hormone called insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), say the study authors from the UK’s University of Bristol and Australia’s Queensland Institute of Medical Research.

In adults, high circulating levels of IGF-1 are linked with reduced cases of heart failure and heart disease deaths.

Joanne Murphy of The Stroke Association said: “This is an interesting study, but we need to take a further look to really assess the benefits of milk in reducing the chances of dying from stroke.

“In the meantime, we advise parents to opt for a diet rich in fruit and vegetables and low in saturated fat and salt for the overall health of their children.”

June Davison, cardiac nurse for the British Heart Foundation said: “It is important to include dairy as part of a balanced diet from the early years.

“However, older children and adults should consume low-fat dairy products such as semi-skimmed, 1% or skimmed milk and low-fat yogurts, which will help keep saturated fat intake low to help protect the heart.”

Studies investigating a link between cancer and dairy products have not given clear results. Some research shows an increase in the risk of developing cancer, and some shows a decrease.

The US defence secretary was making an unannounced visit

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said on a visit to Iraq that its security situation has improved “amazingly” in the past three years.

He is in the country to see how US troops are adapting to their new non-combat role since withdrawing from all urban areas at the end of June.

All American troops are due to leave Iraq by 2011.

As Mr Gates visited Iraq, a top US envoy was in Jerusalem trying to revive the Arab-Israeli peace process.

Nobody’s the boss or the occupier Robert Gates US Defence Secretary

Mr Gates began his visit to Iraq with a speech to troops at a base in the south before travelling to the capital Baghdad, where he met Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.

A potential deal to sell F-16 fighter jets to Baghdad was expected to be discussed at talks also involving Iraq’s defence minister.

While the deal could help protect Iraq from outside threats, it will not solve the country’s internal problems, the BBC’s Gabriel Gatehouse reports from Baghdad.

Iraq today is a very different place but it is not a peaceful one, and attacks still daily plague many towns and cities, our correspondent adds.

US forces continue to patrol in some urban areas, albeit under Iraqi supervision, he says, but the Pentagon would prefer its troops to focus on training and supporting Iraqi forces.

‘Flexible’ deployment

Sectarian violence was raging in Iraq when Mr Gates made his first visit as defence secretary in December 2006.

Security there now was “amazingly different”, he told troops assembled at the Tallil air base, near the city of Nasiriya.

US troops there are serving mainly as advisers to Iraqi forces.

Mr Gates said he was impressed by a US artillery brigade which had come to Iraq in the spring thinking it would be on the front lines, but quickly adapted to an advisory role.

“This is a symbol of how flexible our forces are,” he said.

He visited Tallil’s command centre, where US and Iraqi commanders meet each morning to go over co-ordination of patrols.

Describing relations between US and Iraqi forces, he said: “Nobody’s the boss or the occupier.”

Later, in Baghdad, the defence secretary met the top US commander in Iraq, Gen Ray Odierno.

US troops withdrew from towns and cities in Iraq on 30 June, six years after the invasion.

They formally handed over security duties to Iraq’s own forces.

US-led combat operations are due to end by September 2010 with the troop withdrawal completed by the end of 2011.

Hand-over fears

Mr Gates was also due to visit Iraq’s Kurdish region on Tuesday.

The Kurds and the Arabs are at odds over oil resources and the Americans want to make sure that the fighting does not start as soon as they leave, our correspondent reports.

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell had talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

Despite reports of “good progress” at the meeting, there was no mention of Israel agreeing to halt settlement construction - a key US demand.

President Barack Obama’s National Security Adviser, James Jones, is expected shortly in Israel leading a team which includes veteran diplomat Dennis Ross.

Protests turned violent after the 12 June presidential election

About 140 Iranians detained during protests against last month’s disputed election result have been released from Evin prison, officials say.

About 200 others, accused of more serious crimes, remain in the prison.

The release comes after Iran’s supreme leader ordered the closure of another detention centre because it failed to “preserve the rights of detainees”.

The unusual moves show how much pressure Iran’s leaders are under over detainees, correspondents say.

A spokesman for the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Kazem Jalali, quoted by Iranian news agencies, said: “Those who were released had committed lighter offences.”

No well-known political figure was among the people released on Tuesday, he said.

The committee was set up to investigate the detentions, with the leader of the judiciary ordering a review of all cases of those held in prison since the election.

‘Agents of unrest’

Mr Jalali, quoted by Fars, said 150 people who remain in prison were suspected of carrying weapons and bombs, and vandalising public property during the unrest.

A further 50 prisoners were, according to judicial officials, the “agents of the unrest and some of them were members of anti-revolutionary groups,” he was quoted by Fars as saying.

The 200 cases were still being investigated.

Supporters of the protesters say the true number of people detained is much higher.

The releases from Evin came after a visit to the notorious prison by the committee, he said.

Meanwhile, another detention centre - Kahrizak - was ordered closed “because it lacked necessary conditions to preserve rights of detainees,” Mr Jalali was quoted earlier by the semi-official Mehr news agency as saying.

It is not clear whether the detainees at the Kahrizak centre were released or transferred elsewhere.

In recent days the opposition has reported almost every day new deaths of protestors held in prison.

Iran’s prisons are notorious for their poor conditions, correspondents report.

Former political prisoners, such as journalists and bloggers, have complained of human rights abuses such as solitary confinement, harsh interrogation tactics and even torture at Evin.