Details of user e-mails, website visits and net phone calls will be stored by internet service providers (ISPs) from Monday under an EU directive.

The plans were drawn up in the wake of the London bombings in 2005.

ISPs and telecoms firms have resisted the proposals while some countries in the EU are contesting the directive.

Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, said it was a "crazy directive" with potentially dangerous repercussions for citizens.

All ISPs in the European Union will have to store the records for a year. An EU directive which requires telecoms firms to hold on to telephone records for 12 months is already in force.

The data stored does not include the content of e-mails and websites, nor a recording of a net phone call, but is used to determine connections between individuals.

Authorities can get access to the stored records with a warrant.

Governments across the EU have now started to implement the directive into their own national legislation.

The UK Home Office, responsible for matters of policing and national security, said the measure had "effective safeguards" in place.

ISPs across Europe have complained about the extra costs involved in maintaining the records. The UK government has agreed to reimburse ISPs for the cost of retaining the data.

Mr Killock said the directive was passed only by "stretching the law".

The EU passed it by "saying it was a commercial matter and not a police matter", he explained.

"Because of that they got it through on a simple vote, rather than needing unanimity, which is required for policing matters," he said.

Sense of shock

He added: "It was introduced in the wake of the London bombings when there was a sense of shock in Europe. It was used to push people in a particular direction."

Sweden has decided to ignore the directive completely while there is a challenge going through the German courts at present.

"Hopefully, we can see some sort of challenge to this directive," said Mr Killock.

In a statement, the Home Office said it was implementing the directive because it was the government's priority to "protect public safety and national security".

It added: "Communications data is the where and when of the communication and plays a vital part in a wide range of criminal investigations and prevention of terrorist attacks, as well as contributing to public safety more generally.

"Without communications data resolving crimes such as the Rhys Jones murder would be very difficult if not impossible.

"Access to communications data is governed by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (Ripa) which ensures that effective safeguards are in place and that the data can only be accessed when it is necessary and proportionate to do so."

Women may be better at sniffing out biologically relevant information from underarm sweat, a US study suggests.

Researchers found it was difficult to mask underarm odour when a woman was doing the smelling, but quite easy to do so when it was a man.

They speculate that a woman's highly attuned smell radar might help her select a mate.

The study, by Philadelphia's Monell Center, appears in Flavour and Fragrance Journal.

In the study, women and men rated the strength of underarm odours, both alone and in conjunction with various fragrances.

The fragrances were selected to test their ability to block underarm odour through a method known as olfactory cross-adaptation.

"Women perhaps need to be more discriminating when they chose who to mate with to produce offspring"
Dr Leslie Knapp
University of Cambridge

This occurs when the nose adapts to one odour, and then also becomes less sensitive to a second odour.

Sniffed alone, the underarm odours smelled equally strong to men and women.

But when fragrance was introduced, only two of 32 scents successfully blocked underarm odour when women were doing the smelling.

In contrast, 19 fragrances significantly reduced the strength of underarm odour for men.

Lead researcher Dr Charles Wysocki, a behavioural neuroscientist, said: "Taken together, our studies indicate that human sweat conveys information that is of particular importance to females.

"This may explain why it is so difficult to block women's perception of sweat odours."

Male smells robust

Not only were women better smellers than men, but male odours were harder to block than female odours.

Underarm odours from the two sexes did not differ in how strong they smelled.

However 19% of the fragrances successfully reduced the strength of male underarm odour, compared to over 50% for the female equivalent.

The volunteers first sniffed vials of underarm sweat to assess the strength of the odour.

Then they continued to rate the intensity of the smell while sniffing a second fragrance for around two minutes.

A drop in intensity ratings for the underarm odour indicated that the fragrance was a successful cross-adapting agent.

Evolutionary reasons

Dr Leslie Knapp, an expert in biological anthropology at the University of Cambridge, said there were good evolutionary reasons why a woman's ability to detect body odours should be more acute, as it could literally be an effective way to sniff out a suitable mate.

She said: "Women perhaps need to be more discriminating when they choose who to mate with to produce offspring, as they invest more than males in the reproductive process.

"Men don't need to be so choosy, they have lots of sperm, and can reproduce with lots of females, but once a woman reproduces with a partner she is tied up for nine months."

Dr Knapp said there was evidence that odour gave a hint about genetic make-up. She highlighted HLA genes involved in the immune response.

She said in evolutionary terms it was desirable for a women to mate with a man whose genes were different to hers, as this was likely to produce more robust offspring.

On Monday, militants attacked a Pakistani police training school in the eastern city of Lahore. Jill McGivering was near the compound during the attack and spoke to people about how recent attacks are affecting their lives.

The young man had a police crew cut and bulging biceps.

As he came forward to speak to me, he was still trembling. He seemed shocked to be alive.

"We were taking our places on the parade ground for inspection, when there was an explosion. Then gunfire," he told me.

"It was chaos. Everyone ran. I hid behind a fruit stall for hours before I could escape."

As he talked to me, a sudden commotion broke out. Nearby a gunman had been arrested.

Minutes later, an explosion deafened us. My translator and I grasped at each other in fear.

"Lahore - a city traditionally known for its tolerance and culture - was under siege"

The rooftop, where we took cover for eight hours, was across the road from the police training school.

Gunmen had stormed the compound, disguised as police cadets.

The air, swirling with heat and dust, was also thick with noise - shouts, sirens, sustained gunfire, swooping military helicopters and bursting grenades.

Lahore - a city traditionally known for its tolerance and culture - was under siege.

Deepening fear

The next day, as local television showed pictures of the flag-draped coffins of those killed, I went back to thank the Khokhar family who own the rooftop we had used.

The Khokhar females, from babes in arms to an elderly matriarch, gathered round us in their courtyard, perched on stools and laps.

It was only a few weeks since the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team, I said - and now this. How did that make them feel

The men were feisty: "Pakistanis would fight back," they said. "This was the work of foreigners."

The women were more sober. "We're frightened for our children," they told me, "the violence is growing, day by day."

That sense of a deepening fear has travelled with me in the last two weeks as I have crossed Pakistan.

"Open warfare between militants and Pakistan's army is sending shockwaves throughout the country"

The North West, the mountainous tribal region which borders Afghanistan, is the epicentre of the violence.

It is been troubled for decades, barely controlled by the state. But in recent years it has become radicalised, home to al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters and other extremists.

They preach an oppressive brand of Islam which most Muslims here are eager to condemn.

As their influence has grown, the government has fought back.

Open warfare between militants and Pakistan's army is sending shockwaves throughout the country.

Frontier lives

In Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, I shared a lavish lunch with a wealthy family who have just moved away from the North West.

They had spent all their lives in the main city there, Peshawar. But moved partly to escape the growing threat of kidnap, shooting and bomb attack.

I have reported from Peshawar several times in the last decade. Now it is simply too dangerous for a foreigner to stay overnight there or travel without an armed escort.

I asked the family to describe their daily life in the frontier city.

The glamorous wife waved a manicured hand and laughed. "I was little Miss Heroine," she told me.

"I always had a gun in my handbag. The children rarely left the house," she added.

"Sometimes we let them play tennis, but only with armed bodyguards there on the court."

Sheltering from violence

The rich are moving to safer cities or even safer countries. But many of those caught up in the fighting in the tribal areas are poor.

More than 600,000 Pakistanis are now internal refugees.

Many live in camps under makeshift plastic shelters, on desolate mud plains, exposed to the wind, rain and sun.

I visited Kacha Gari camp, on the outskirts of Peshawar, escorted on the journey from Islamabad by a special military convoy.

I found a class of thin-faced schoolgirls, cross-legged in an airless tent, chanting the alphabet. Most had never been to school before.

Outside, among their mothers, I met Gulhayat, a strapping woman with crooked teeth and an open, hearty smile.

She had seven children, she told me and shared her husband with two other wives.

Back home, in their village, she used to live like a queen, she said. But two years ago, Taleban fighters came.

They stopped girls going to school. Women were not allowed to leave the house, even to go to the doctor.

"When my husband argued with them, they threatened to behead him," she told me.

Tough decisions

Everyone I have met here, from the camps to the cities, speaks of the future with trepidation.

They talk of Talebanisation, of creeping extremism, of spies and of the state loosening its tentative grip on power.

I heard numerous solutions. Education. Development. Sealing the border with Afghanistan. Sending Nato troops home. None of them easy and none of them quick.

Back in the camp, Gulhayat led me through the mud to the family's plastic shelter. I asked her what she thought the government should do

She shook her head sadly. "They should bring peace," she said simply, "so we can go home."

From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday, 4 April, 2009 at 1130 GMT on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules for World Service

China has said that North Korea has the right to peaceful space development, and called for a cautious UN response to Pyongyang's rocket launch.

"We hope relevant parties can maintain restraint and stay calm," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said.

Divisions at the UN Security Council are hampering talks over Sunday's test.

Pyongyang says the test was a success, putting a satellite into orbit which is now transmitting data and revolutionary songs. The US says the attempt failed.

See satellite images of North Korea's launch pad

American military sources say the rocket failed to fire its later stages and fell into the Pacific.

But analysts say the test was still partially successful and should increase North Korea's bargaining power at the negotiating table.

Sanctions threat

The permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, France, Russia, UK and China and Japan - met in New York on Monday without coming to an agreement.

A further meeting is set for Tuesday, but correspondents say it may take days to reach a deal.

Washington and Tokyo are seeking a strong response, but Beijing and Moscow have called for restraint - although it is unclear exactly what this means.

N Korea a problem for Obama

North Korea's missile programme

Reaction to North Korea launch

In pictures: Space launch

"This issue also involves a country's right to peaceful use of space. We believe the Security Council should respond in a prudent way," said China's foreign ministry spokesman Jiang Yu.

Earlier US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said North Korea's launch of a long-range rocket had "grave implications", and she called for the UN to adopt a "strong position" in response.

"North Korea ignored its international obligations, rejected the unequivocal calls for restraint, and further isolated itself from the community of nations."

The US, South Korea and Japan say the launch violates a UN Security Council resolution adopted in October 2006 which bans North Korea from carrying out ballistic missile activity.

The US envoy to the UN has called Pyongyang's move a "clear-cut violation of [resolution] 1718", while Tokyo said it was seeking a "clear, firm and unified" response.

HAVE YOUR SAY
"For those of you who claim that North Korea has the right to test rockets... OK... but how you feel about one coming over your country without permission being given... get real!"
Richard, Kobe, Japan

But according to the BBC's Laura Trevelyan, at the UN headquarters in New York, China and Russia disagree that Pyongyang was in breach of the resolution.

The Japanese government, meanwhile, has said it would be considering possible new bilateral sanctions against North Korea over the course of the next few days.

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