Peter Gabriel - SLEDGEHAMMER

If planning a new lawn or lawn repair do the ground work and levelling now into September and lay the lawn at the end of September or October. Grass seeding is also recommended for October. September can be too hot and dry during the day for either of these operations more

Divers steal from Holland 5 submarine off Sussex coast  Thieves have targeted a historically important submarine wreck lying in the English Channel, it has emerged. English Heritage said divers stole the torpedo tube hatch of the Holland 5, which sank six miles off Eastbourne in East Sussex in 1912. The theft was discovered during a licensed dive by the Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) in June and confirmed during a dive last month. The NAS described the wreck as a "remarkable piece of naval heritage". Sussex Police and English Heritage have appealed for help to catch the perpetrators, who may have struck up to two years ago more

God didn't create universe, says Hawking The universe was not created by God, scientist Stephen Hawking has said in his new book. Professor Hawking believes the laws of physics were behind the Big Bang instead, in a challenge to traditional religious beliefs. In The Grand Design, extracts of which were printed in The Times today, Prof Hawking concludes: "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. "Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. "It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going more

India's elephants finally given same protection as tigers The humble hardworking elephant is not an animal that usually likes to complain. But over the years, while higher-profile, more urgently threatened species have been the subject of  wide scale conservation efforts, elephant numbers have been allowed to dwindle. Perhaps worse, the gender ratio – since only males have tusks, it is they who are sought by poachers – has become perilously skewed. In an attempt to address these concerns, the Indian authorities have now decided to declare the elephant its "national heritage animal" and to afford it the same level of protection as bestowed upon the mighty tiger more

Huge snowfall caused by rare clash of weather events Scientists have shown that a severe snowfall in North America and Northern Europe in the winter of 2009-2010 was caused by a rare, once in a century, collision of two weather systems. They concluded the harsh winter and heavy snow was an example of hard to predict weather events, not a change in climate.  They analysed historical snow records. The research was published in Geophysical Research Letters. In the winter of 2009-2010 much of Northern Europe experienced heavy snow and temperatures were at the lowest they had been for nearly 30 years. At the same time, record snowfall hit Washington DC and other parts of America's "Mid-Atlantic states" more

Half of Britons get sunburnt, a survey shows Nearly half of Britons got sunburnt this summer and many would be willing to do so again to get a tan, a survey reveals. The poll of 2,000 people found 46% had sunburn this year, and a third of these were tan-seekers. Of these tanners, more than a third said they did the same each year and a third said they would again, the Cancer Research UK and Superdrug study found more

Four energy companies face mis-selling probe Four of the "big six" UK energy suppliers are to be investigated amid concerns of mis-selling to customers, the regulator has announced. Npower, Scottish Power, Scottish and Southern Energy, and EDF Energy all face questions over face-to-face and telephone sales of energy contracts. Ofgem said it had received information from a variety of sources suggesting they could have breached new rules. The quartet said they would work with Ofgem on the investigation more

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