Richard Garriott, the 47-year-old creator of the Ultima series of computer games, has become the world's sixth space tourist. His 11-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS) cost US$30 million.

Garriott and ISS Expedition 18 members Mike Fincke and Yuri Lonchakov launched to the ISS from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Oct. 12, arriving at the ISS two days later.

Uni of St Andrews

Imagine shining a torch on a wall of a large dark room. The further away from the wall you are the larger and dimmer the circle of light will be. A normal light source spreads out with distance, an effect known as diffraction.

Gliese 581, ESO

The giant RT-70 radio telescope in the Ukraine sent the message on Oct 9. It is now over 100 billion miles from Earth. The target star Gliese 581 lies 20.1 light years from Earth. The Bebo team selected it because it has planets orbiting within the habitable zone. The region from the star where liquid water can exist.

Meeting at the weekend in Paris, the heads of states of the eurozone have agreed a response to the banking crises. The eurozone comprises the 15 countries that use the euro. This meeting was the first such, since the euro was launched in 1999.

The three key components of the plan are

• Countries will inject capital into their banks if necessary by buying preference shares
• Countries will guarantee interbank leading until the end of next year
• The European Central Bank will attempt to boost liquidity

The eurozone states have based their plan on the £500 billion (US$865 billion) UK plan announced last week. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown attended the eurozone meeting even though the UK is not a member.

See Anti-Terror Law Used in Credit Crises

This is hardly the first instance when the UK government has used anti-terrorist legislation in a manner for which it was not intended. It is clear if such powers exist they will be used as and when it suits those in power. Assurances otherwise are meaningless.

Those who warned against giving sweeping powers to the government ‘just in case’ now feel vindicated.

No one is coming out of this looking good. The Icelandic banking system now appears to have been little more than a Ponzi scheme. Iceland’s bank regulators and government were apparently enthusiastic participants.

Why The UK government allowed these banks to continue to trade in the UK is a question they have not yet answered. Both governments are attempting to avoid hard questions and blame.