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China stone axes 'display ancient writing'

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><img src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/68666000/jpg/_68666129_68652174.jpg" width="600"/> Fragments of two ancient stone axes found in China could display some of the world's earliest primitive writing, Chinese archaeologists say. The markings on the axes, unearthed near Shanghai, could date back at least 5,000 years, the scientists say. But Chinese scholars are divided on whether the markings are proper writing or a less sophisticated stream of symbols. The world's oldest writing is thought to be from Mesopotamia from 3,300 BC. The stone fragments are part of a large trove of artefacts discovered between 2003 and 2006 at a site just south of Shanghai, says the BBC's Celia Hatton in Beijing. But it has taken years for archaeologists to examine their discoveries and release their findings, our correspondent adds. The findings have not been reviewed by experts outside China, reports say. 'The main thing is that there are six symbols arranged together and three of them are the same,' lead archaeologist Xu Xinmin told local reporters, referring to markings on one of the pieces. 'This clearly is a sentence expressing some kind of meaning'. Cao Jinyan, a well-known scholar on ancient writing, also told local media that the markings could be an early form of writing. 'Although we cannot yet accurately read the meaning of the 'words' carved on the stone axes, we can be certain that they belong to the category of words, even if they are somewhat primitive,' he said. Some scholars, however, remain unconvinced. Archaeologist Liu Zhao from Fudan University in Shanghai told the Associated Press news agency they 'do not have enough material' to make conclusions. If proven, the stone axes will be older than the earliest proven Chinese writing found on animal bones, which dates back 3,300 years. </div>

China stone axes 'display ancient writing'

Fragments of two ancient stone axes found in China could display some of the world's earliest primitive writing, Chinese archaeologists ...

12:36 PM

Speedy tsunami seen on Sun's surface

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><img src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/68654000/jpg/_68654848_68654847.jpg" width="600"/> Two satellites have seen 'tsunami' spreading on the surface of the Sun after a release of matter into space called a coronal mass ejection (CME). These tsunami of heightened magnetic field and hot, ionised gas race across the Sun at about 400km per second. Analysis of the chance sighting, to be published in Solar Physics, allowed the measurement of the magnetic field in 'quiet' areas, away from the CME. Understanding this field may help predict how CMEs will affect the Earth. And thanks to data from Hinode, one of the two satellites, researchers may have cracked a 70-year-old mystery as to why the Sun's surrounding corona is so much hotter than its surface. The Japanese satellite Hinode has been studying the Sun since 2006, joined in Earth orbit by the Solar Dynamics Observatory in 2010. Both satellites look at ultraviolet light from the Sun - colours we cannot see but that give hints as to both the chemical makeup and the extreme physical conditions at and near the Sun's roiling, turbulent surface. <img src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/68665000/jpg/_68665383_r5300110-solar_promincence-spl.jpg" width="600"/> The Sun's turbulent life is under unprecedented scrutiny by satellites David Long of University College London and colleagues finally spotted what are known as EIT waves after a CME. Like a tsunami emanating from the point of a seismic event, EIT waves are shock waves that carry magnetic fields and hot, ionised 'plasma'. 'These EIT waves are quite tricky - they're very random and they're relatively rare,' said Dr Long. 'We need to be in the right place at the right time; this has been a long time coming.' The SDO satellite was able to capture the ultraviolet light emitted as the wave spread out. From that, the team was able to determine the wave's speed - some 400km per second - and its rough temperature, over a million degree. Meanwhile the Hinode satellite returned a high-resolution map of the density of the Sun's surface every 45 seconds. Using both data sets, the team was able to determine the magnetic field of the 'quiet corona' - a tricky measurement of the Sun in its typical, quiescent state. 'This tells us a lot about the nature of the Sun and what goes on in the atmosphere,' Dr Long explained. 'These waves are quite important because they're associated with CMEs that fire plasma out into the heliosphere, toward the Earth.' These CMEs can bathe the Earth with fast-moving particles that can disrupt satellite communications or even knock out electrical power here on Earth - but solar scientists struggle to predict their eventual effects. 'Generally we see them when there's a CME coming straight at us - but when it's coming straight at us then it's quite difficult to measure how fast it's coming at us or how strong it is,' Dr Long said. 'So by looking at these waves, we should be able to infer how powerful these CMEs are going to be.' More observations of EIT waves will be needed to determine the relationship between the waves' and the CMEs' characteristics. Hot, cold, hot The Hinode satellite was also crucial for measurements reported at this week's meeting of the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society. <img src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/68665000/jpg/_68665388_r5100014-skylab_x-ray_picture_of_solar_corona-spl.jpg" width="600"/> Michael Hahn and Daniel Wolf Savin of Columbia University in New York, US, used Hinode to peer at similar waves from a 'polar coronal hole' - a region where, like the pole of a bar magnet, field lines originate and reach far above the Sun's surface. They were trying to tackle a puzzle about the temperature of the Sun's surrounding corona. The temperature at the Sun's core is some 15,000,000C, but its surface is below 6,000C. Yet the corona is known to be at a temperature in excess of 1,000,000C. How the energy gets into the corona to keep up these temperatures has baffled astronomers for more than half a century. One idea was that waves of magnetic energy rise from below the Sun's surface, depositing energy into the corona higher up. But what remained unclear was whether the energy was lost on its journey. Hinode observations of the polar coronal hole have allowed the pair to peek into this interim height and determine how the energy is coupled up from the surface into the corona. In a preprint on the Arxiv server they show that enough energy is carried by these waves to keep the corona at its searing temperatures. </div>

Speedy tsunami seen on Sun's surface

Two satellites have seen 'tsunami' spreading on the surface of the Sun after a release of matter into space called a coronal mass ej...

11:02 AM

Beyoncé and Solange snub father Mathew Knowles wedding... as he ties the ...

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED: 12:53 EST, 6 July 2013 | UPDATED: 07:53 EST, 8 July 2013 He divorced daughter Beyonce's mother Tina after more than 30 years of marriage The 61-year-old married former model Gena Charmaine Avery last Sunday in Houston, Texas, but Beyoncé, 31, and her sister Solange, 27, were not in attendance. <img src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/07/08/article-2357476-1AB0CCC5000005DC-893_306x423.jpg" width="600"/> Beyonce is currently in the midst of her Mrs. Carter tour, and Solange is touring to promote her new EP True. She performed at the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans, the night before her superstar sister also took to the stage at the Super Dome. He split from from wife Tina in 2009 after it was revealed he had an affair and a baby boy, Nixon, with actress Alexsandra Wright . Mathew quit his job as a medical equipment salesman to manage Beyonce's early group, Girl's Tyme, which eventually morphed into Destiny's Child in 1990. Ties were after all not easy to sever with Mathew having producer credits on many of his daughter's projects. He also served as the founder of Music World Entertainment, a label that, through Columbia Records, has released albums by Beyoncé, sister Solange Knowles, Sunshine Anderson, and former Destiny's Child members Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams. 'My dad knew that I needed his approval,' Beyonce said in a recent documentary. <img src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/07/08/article-2357476-1AB5CD7E000005DC-964_306x503.jpg" width="600"/><img src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/07/08/article-2357476-1AB37376000005DC-886_306x503.jpg" width="600"/> 'And I think my father wouldn't give it to me. Because he kept pushing me. And kept pushing me. And kept pushing me. Every time my dad pushed me, I got better and stronger.' Despite Matthew claiming it was joint decision for him to stop being her manager, Beyoncé - who has 18-month-old daughter Blue Ivy with her rapper husband Jay-Z - later revealed their split has taken a toll on their personal relationship. <img src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/07/08/article-2357476-1AB2A3D4000005DC-464_634x368.jpg" width="600"/><img src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/07/06/article-0-1AB0CCC1000005DC-997_634x832.jpg" width="600"/></div>

Beyoncé and Solange snub father Mathew Knowles wedding... as he ties the ...

By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED: 12:53 EST, 6 July 2013 | UPDATED: 07:53 EST, 8 July 2013 He divorced daughter Beyonce's mother Tina ...

11:02 AM

Why was Asiana jet flying so slowly before crash?

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>The Boeing airliner that crashed at San Francisco airport on 6 July - killing two teenage passengers and injuring scores more - was flying far too slowly to maintain the lift it needed to stay airborne. So says the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) after an initial analysis of black box data from the Asiana Boeing 777. The airliner's crew seemed to realise too late that they were dropping from the sky on landing approach and an attempt to boost engine power came too late to save the aircraft from striking the ground prematurely. Amateur video showed the airliner approached the runway with its nose too high and its tail too low - a sign of imminent stall - causing the tail to make contact with the ground short of the runway. The impact severed the tail section, both engines, and the landing gear. The broken fuselage then cartwheeled, one wing twisting high in the air, before coming to a stop amid a fuel fire. Modern fire-retardant insulation and crash-resistant seating did their job, allowing passengers to be evacuated before fire consumed the wreckage. But two 16-year-old passengers ejected from the plane died. Basic element Because maintaining appropriate airspeed is one of the most basic elements of flying, the NTSB's initial finding is likely to involve scrutiny of both pilot training and the levels of automation in modern cockpits, which some believe can make pilots too reliant on technology. In February 2009, failure to maintain airspeed led to a stall of Colgan Air flight 3407, which crashed in Buffalo, New York, killing 50 people. And in June 2009 Air France 447 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean after losing airspeed and stalling, killing 228 people. All aircraft have their own ideal landing speed which, with the lift-enhancing flaps extended, allows for a smooth, controlled descent. But as Asiana flight 214 began its final approach to San Francisco's runway 28L on Saturday, says NTSB chief Deborah Hersman, its airspeed slowed below the 137 knots needed for a Boeing 777-200ER to make a safe landing. Data from the flight recorder indicate that the aircraft reached a low of 103 knots 3 seconds before impact. At that point the engines were at 50 per cent power and increasing, as the crew were throttling up to try to gain speed. No crew member called to increase speed, she says, until 7 seconds before impact - suggesting the pilots were unaware of their plight until very late on. Three seconds later the 'stick shaker' rattled the pilot's control yoke to warn that more speed was needed to avoid a stall. At 1.5 seconds before impact they decide to go to full power and circle the airport to try landing again - but by then a crash was unavoidable. Odd descent It is too soon to say exactly what the precise cause was. However, the pilots had to land the plane without the help of a navigation system that can guide planes on to a glide path to the runway, as the equipment is currently out of service at San Francisco airport. The crash investigation will probably focus on to what degree the lack of that common facility was a factor in the incident. In addition, the odd descent profile of the flight - it plummeted rather quickly at times on its way into San Francisco airspace - may hold clues, too. 'I'm sure training and cockpit automation will be at the top of the things the NTSB is looking at,' says Emily McGee of the Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Virginia, which campaigns on behalf of passenger groups. 'But they will be looking at that amongst everything else on what is a very long list.' Rob Hunter, head of flight safety at the British Airline Pilot's Association, a London based aviator's advocacy group, says the NTSB investigation is likely to focus in part on ways in which pilots can be made unaware of their speed by the complexities of cockpit computers. 'It is not uncommon for there to be events where the aircraft gets very slow and the crew don't recognise it. That can be caused by some element of the autopilot failing or misleading the crew,' he says. 'There are many modes and sub-modes of autopilot operation and each of these has certain protection functions which prevent the aircraft from, for instance, stalling. But in certain autopilot modes that protection is disabled. It's complicated and not particularly intuitive for pilots to understand.' If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to. <img src="http://www.newscientist.com/img/icon/print_share.png" width="600"/> <img src="http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn23831/dn23831-1_300.jpg" width="600"/> Navigation systems that would have helped guide the plane down were out of service at San Francisco airport (Image: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) </div>

Why was Asiana jet flying so slowly before crash?

The Boeing airliner that crashed at San Francisco airport on 6 July - killing two teenage passengers and injuring scores more - was flying f...

10:02 AM

Gold markets have jumped the gun of Bernanke climb

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><img src="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/files/2013/07/bernanke_2017935b-460x288.jpg" width="600"/> Be very careful. Ben Bernanke has not retreated from monetary tightening. The Fed is still on track to start tapering bond purchases as soon as September. There has been no volte-face. The plunge in the US dollar since Ben Bernanke made his confused comments last night - and the $40 surge in the price of gold - is likely to be reversed in short order. He did of course say that 'highly accommodative monetary policy for the foreseeable future is what's needed in the US economy', and he is certainly right about that. The broad U6 measure of US unemployment jumped in June from 13.8pc to 14.3pc. Stephen Lewis from Monuments says this is biggest increase since 2009. The number working part-time - by compulsion, not choice - rose by 322,000 in a single month. I might add that Taper Terror has already done this to 30-year mortgage rates (courtesy of Paul Krugman): <img src="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/files/2013/07/chart11.jpg" width="600"/> Which in turn has led to this slump in Wall Street's home builders index, a leading gauge of the housing market. <img src="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/files/2013/07/chart22.jpg" width="600"/> The world economy remains flat on its back, which is why the IMF has just cut its forecast yet again and slashed its growth figure for Brazil, South Africa, and India, among others. BNP Paribas said this morning that the trade data from Asia has been nothing short of disastrous. I notice that Morgan Stanley now thinks China's growth rate may have a '5 handle' on it by next year. If so, the world is going to have very different feel. What we have is serious debacle unfolding in the world yet again. The Fed has delivered a global credit shock with its taper talk, pushing up yields by 70 basis points at a time when deflation is gathering force. (Data from Sweden today shows that it is now in outright deflation, along with Switzerland, Spain, Greece, and Cyprus. While China has been in producer price deflation for 18 consecutive months). The net effect is that global real rates have been rocketing. That is hardly auspicious for equities. It is deadly for gold. I certainly agree that if Bernanke were to back away from QE tapering, it would be highly significant. And he has good reason to so after the global bloodbath already caused by taper terror. But he did not do so yesterday. He persisted with the line that tapering is not monetary tightening. He is trying to have his cake and eat it. He wants the extricate the Fed from QE without admitting to the markets what his real game is. He claims that interest rate policy and QE are different animals. He wants us to believe that money remains ultra-loose because rate are near zero. Well excuse me, Chairman, but central banks conduct QE as a substitute for rate cuts once rates have hit the 'zero bound', as he explained so eloquently in his November 2001 deflation speech. Ergo, the reverse holds true. To taper is to tighten, ceteris paribus. To reverse QE by selling bonds is to tighten further, even if rates are still zero. As Milton Friedman explained long ago, it is perfectly possible for zero rates to be extremely tight, and that is exactly where we are today. (As it happens, I agree that QE bond purchases outside the banking system - working through classical quantity of money effect - can work in an entirely different way from rate cuts. But this is not the argument that Bernanke has ever made. He is a 'creditist' who views QE as a way of forcing down the long end of the credit curve.) So what we have is a situation where the markets are taking his easy money talk at face value, but ignoring the hard money fist behind it. Spooked by asset bubbles, the Fed is still hell-bent on winding down QE as soon as possible, and will try to do so unless the data is so awful that it is forced to backtrack. Whatever happens, the great dollar rally seems likely to resume. Stephen Jen from SLJ Macro Partners says the ECB has been a 'free-rider' on Fed stimulus until now. Finally it will have to do have to do some heavy lifting itself. The more the US tightens, the more Europe will have to loosen. And the more Europe loosens, the more the Fed will tighten, so the process will feed on itself. That is an entirely new world, a world in which the US dollar is almighty once again (with nasty effects on China and many of the other 45 states linked to the dollar by pegs or dirty floats) and in which the euro comes all the way down parity (which is exactly what Europe needs, and should be welcomed). If the German bloc at the ECB tries to resist this, they will take EMU straight into a Japanese deflation trap. Indeed, they may have done so already. So where does that leave with gold? You can certainly make bullish technical arguments. It has bounced off its support line around $1,200, the level where a lot of mines start losing real money. Near record short positions on Comex have created the springs for a vicious short squeeze, and therefore a powerful rally. But you have to be a brave man or woman to hold gold into a Fed tightening cycle and a dollar rally. My guess is that the Fed will indeed to have to retreat from QE in the end, just as it had to back away from premature tightening after QE1 and QE2, but we are not there yet, and they will take longer to blink this time. First we have to go through a nasty squall. The Fed is in fixed-bayonet mood. It will pull back only once it becomes clear that tapering risks pushing the world from a contained depression into a full depression. It would not surprise me if the Fed has to double-down on QE before this is all over. It may even have to go full throttle like the Bank of Japan. Then gold will shine again. But that is a story for another day. Read more by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard on Telegraph BlogsFollow Telegraph Blogs on Twitter</div>

Gold markets have jumped the gun of Bernanke climb

Be very careful. Ben Bernanke has not retreated from monetary tightening. The Fed is still on track to start tapering bond purchases as soon...

10:02 AM

Brazilian referee beheaded by spectators after he fatally stabs player

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><img src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Sport/Pix/columnists/2013/7/6/1373150522669/Riot-squad-officers-clash-008.jpg" width="600"/> Police in northern Brazil say one man has been arrested after a referee who fatally stabbed a player during a match was decapitated by spectators who stormed the field. Local reports said the incident, which took place on 30 June in the remote Brazilian town of Pio XII, escalated when the player, 30-year-old Josenir dos Santos, became involved in an argument with the referee, Octavio da Silva. As the confrontation became physical and Dos Santos refused to leave the field, Da Silva allegedly produced a knife and stabbed the player, who died while being taken to hospital. Reports said that outraged spectators responded by running on to the field and stoning Da Silva, before severing his head and sticking it on a stake in the middle of the field. Police at the regional headquarters of Santa Ines said a 27-year-old man was arrested on 2 July, with the investigation continuing. Police spokesman Valter Costa was quoted as saying: 'We will identify and hold accountable all those involved in this incident. One crime will never justify another. Actions like this do not correspond with state law.' Brazil faces mounting pressure to show it is a safe place for tourists before 12 cities host the 2014 World Cup and Rio de Janeiro the Olympics in 2016. The Confederations Cup in June was marked by violence as anti-government protestors angered by the amount of money being spent on the events clashed with police. </div>

Brazilian referee beheaded by spectators after he fatally stabs player

Police in northern Brazil say one man has been arrested after a referee who fatally stabbed a player during a match was decapitated by spect...

10:02 AM

The 'cyber

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'><img src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/66629000/jpg/_66629818_66629817.jpg" width="600"/> <img src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/68563000/jpg/_68563738_hi015413960.jpg" width="600"/>Fears that the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony might have come under cyber-attack have been detailed by officials for the first time. The concern was that the lights could have been turned off during the ceremony. The threat did not materialise, but officials have told the BBC they put extensive precautions in place. It comes amid fears about the vulnerability of Britain's national infrastructure to cyber-attack. The head of the government's surveillance centre GCHQ, Sir Iain Lobban, says reconnaissance has taken place in cyberspace and there is a 'realistic threat', which his intelligence agency is working with partners to try to counter. A phone call from GCHQ at 04:45 is not the ideal way of being woken on the day of the Olympic opening ceremony if you are head of cyber security for the Games. Find out more <img src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/68443000/jpg/_68443722_cyber.still002.jpg" width="600"/> 'There was a suggestion that there was a credible attack on the electricity infrastructure supporting the Games,' Olympic cyber security head Oliver Hoare, who received the call, told BBC Radio 4 - in the first interview an official has given on the events that day. 'And the first reaction to that is, 'Goodness, you know, let's make a strong cup of coffee.'' If the lights had gone off during the opening ceremony, with close to a billion people watching, the impact would have been enormous. When it came to risks to the Games, cyber attacks had been lower down the list than terrorism, which could cause real loss of life, but extensive testing had still taken place for a range of different possibilities. This included precisely the scenario that raised concerns on the opening day. 'We'd tested no less than five times the possibility of an attack, a cyber-attack, on the electricity infrastructure,' said Mr Hoare. Ticking clock This would prove vital in ensuring an effective response from a team that stretched across government, the Olympic organisers Locog and private sector service providers such as BT. 'Start Quote <img src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/68603000/jpg/_68603523_oliver.jpg" width="600"/> Thirty seconds at the opening ceremony with the lights going down would have been catastrophic' The initial response to the threat came from the Olympic Cyber Co-ordination Team (OCCT), based at MI5 headquarters in Thames House. There were two priorities. The first was to investigate how credible the threat might be. The information had come in overnight and was based on the discovery of attack tools and targeting information that it was thought at the time might relate to the Olympics. While this investigation continued, officials also put in place contingency plans in case the attack materialised. Time was not on their side. 'The clock was absolutely ticking,' recalled Mr Hoare, who worked first for the Olympic Delivery Authority and then the Government Olympic Executive. He, and others interviewed for the story, declined to speak in detail about the preparations put in place. 'We effectively switched to manual, or had the facility to switch to manual. It's a very crude way of describing it. But effectively we had lots of technicians stationed at various points,' he said. In the afternoon a meeting was held in the Cabinet Office briefing room (although it was not a formal meeting of Cobra, the government's emergency response committee), chaired by deputy national security adviser Oliver Robbins, where different partners could join in videoconferencing from places such as the Olympic Park. Contingency plans were discussed and ministers informed. Confidence grew that if the threat materialised it could be dealt with. Vulnerability Mr Hoare recalls a conversation an hour or so before the opening ceremony, in which he asked someone how the situation looked. 'Good news,' the individual replied. 'If the lights go down we can get them up and running regardless within 30 seconds.' <img src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/68568000/jpg/_68568428_hi015424681.jpg" width="600"/> That did not entirely reassure Mr Hoare. 'Thirty seconds at the opening ceremony with the lights going down would have been catastrophic in terms of reputational hit,' he said. 'So I watched the opening ceremony with a great deal of trepidation.' Other officials said, although they were confident every contingency had been prepared for, that did not prevent some nerves. 'You wouldn't be human if you didn't have butterflies,' one recalled. Mr Hoare said that watching at home with his family, who did not know about the threat, he twitched every time the lights dimmed. In the end the threat turned out to be a false alarm. But it does highlight a growing fear about the vulnerability of Britain's critical infrastructure to cyber-attack. 'Technical reconnaissance' Increasing numbers of services are being connected to the internet, from power stations through to smart meters in people's homes. This brings many benefits and efficiencies for people's daily lives but also provides a new access point for those seeking to do harm, whether bedroom hackers or foreign states. 'We have seen technical reconnaissance of parts of our critical national infrastructure, yes,' Sir Iain told the BBC. 'Not to such an extent that we would raise a red flag but certainly we've seen an interest, an intentional interest, in parts of that infrastructure.' The GCHQ head said that the UK, along with its allies, was looking at how compromises and penetrations might occur and how to guard against them. This year the UK is expected to launch its first national computer emergency response team (Cert). Until now, the UK has had government Certs but not a broader national team, unlike many other countries. The real challenges on critical infrastructure, as with the Olympics, lies in the meeting point between government and private sector and ensuring that the right people with the right technical expertise are in the right place. Under Attack - The Threat From Cyberspace is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Monday 8 July at 20:00 BST.</div>

The 'cyber

Fears that the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony might have come under cyber-attack have been detailed by officials for the first time....

10:02 AM

Paul Gascoigne Arrested For Alleged Assault

<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>Paul Gascoigne has been arrested for an alleged assault. The troubled ex-footballer was reportedly taken into custody by officers following an incident at a train station in Stevenage in Hertfordshire. The Mirror reports that he allegedly grabbed a security guard by the throat and then grabbed the arm of ex-wife Sheryl as she tried to stop the fight. <img src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/982950/thumbs/o-PAUL-GASCOIGNE-570.jpg?6" width="600"/> A police spokesman said: 'There are two allegations of common assault. One was against a man who is a station security guard. 'The allegation there is the 46-year-old man grabbed the security guard around the neck and the other allegation is regarding a member of the public who arrived at the station while this was happening. 'The accusation is that he grabbed their arm.' The star was not charged but was reportedly held in a cell overnight for 12 hours. Paul was rushed to hospital in February this year after a bad reaction to alcohol withdrawal, before completing a stint in a US rehab facility. He previously told of how he thought he was going to die, telling The Sun: 'I should be dead. The doctors said I would not make it. 'I was out cold for three days. I thought I was on my way out. I looked like a corpse. I was a total wreck. 'But I'm here, I have another chance - and I'm going to take it. It's got to inspire me never to let this happen again. I've come through that - death,' he added. ENTER OUR FAB COMPETITIONS:Win £250 In Shopping Vouchers With 'Song For Marion' Win Wilderness Festival Boutique Camping Weekend Tickets, A Banquet Feast And Relax In A Lakeside Spa Hot TubWin Tickets And A Fantastic Charlie And The Chocolate Factory Experience For Your Family</div>

Paul Gascoigne Arrested For Alleged Assault

Paul Gascoigne has been arrested for an alleged assault. The troubled ex-footballer was reportedly taken into custody by officers following ...

9:17 AM