Today's news

Anger as hijacker visits university
Palestinian hijacker and member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Leila Khaled, has been allowed into Britain to address a department at London University. The visit, during which Ms Khaled promoted the use of terrorist tactics, has sparked fury among MPs and community groups. (The Daily Telegraph)

Academics in war or words over calls to boycott Israel
A campaign to suspend European Union funding of Israel’s universities has been countered by the mobilisation of academics denouncing the appeasement of terrorism. (The Guardian)

US business schools take top slots
US business schools at Columbia, Harvard, Duke, Pennsylvania and Stanford universities took the top five positions, respectively, in the FT’s annual business-school rankings, despite suffering financial losses over the past year. (Financial Times)

Mission to Mars
Nasa is shortly expected to announce plans to send men to Mars after a huge ice field has been discovered beneath the planet’s surface, making it possible for a return flight to carry enough water to sustain the crew for the journey. (The Times, The Independent, Financial Times)

Modern life steals our senses
An experimental psychologist based at Oxford University, Charles Spence, has claimed that modern living is causing sensory deprivation and has serious implications for health and wellbeing. (The Daily Telegraph)

Authors quit Hay-on-Wye festival over Nestle links
Leading writers, including Germaine Greer, have pulled out of the Hay-on-Wye literary festival in protest at the involvement of Nestle as a sponsor. Nestle has suffered much criticism in the past for its marketing of powdered milk in third-world countries. (The Daily Telegraph)

Fertility fears for women who stay too slim
Harvard University professor and fertility expert, Rose Frisch, has claimed that a low-fat diet combined with constant exercise can negatively affect women’s ability to conceive. (Daily Mail)

Darkness is good for children
Spending time in the dark help’s children develop their imagination, argues University of Kent sociology professor Frank Furedi. (The Times – T2)

Obscure scientists find place in history
Matthew Cobb, a researcher at Laboratoire D’Ecologie, University of Paris, argues that two obscure 17th-century anatomists changed the course of biology, for the first time separating the subject from the natural sciences and treating it as a modern science. (The Times – T2)

Leaping lizards help robots
An artificial version of the microscopic hairs that help geckos scale walls and cling to ceilings has been developed, paving the way for a new generation of robots that can move across any surface. (The Times)

New superbug renders antibiotics useless
A new superbug that can neutralise antibiotics and cause fatal blood poisoning has been detected at Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride, one of Scotland’s most modern hospitals. (The Independent)

Sleeping on the job boosts productivity
Scientists at Harvard University have found that taking a nap at work can boost performance and prevent the brain from becoming overloaded. (The Independent)

Does executive education pay off?
Corporations must ensure that investing vast sums of money in executive education reaps the necessary dividends. (Financial Times)

Powerful drive to top of league
Five-year-old General Motors University has established itself as one of the world’s leading corporate universities. (Financial Times)

Report refutes workplace revolution
According to figures from the Office of National Statistics, the widespread perception that jobs are no longer for life, that work is becoming increasingly temporary and that more people are going freelance is in fact a myth. (Financial Times)