The BBC's Paul Wood, who travelled without permission to Syria's flashpoint city of Homs, reports that he saw a small but steady stream of defectors from the official security forces.
Two younger sisters and a brother are going to school thanks to his regular cash transfers home, and his parents - who as teachers earn very small salaries - are being supported too
Small businesses can rely on technology and its myriad of providers to do the heavy lifting for them, and on their own terms, says Adrian Kelly from Sage
The open cast mines that fuel the plant are so large they could accommodate small towns. The bucket wheel excavators that dig out the lignite are the height of 30-storey tower blocks
Hidden away in an industrial estate, bordering a slightly down-at-heel area of south London, is a collection of non-descript industrial units surrounding a small cul-de-sac.
By installing a small digital camera above a cash machine criminals can literally watch people keying in their pin codes to access their accounts. They then trap the accompanying cards in the machine, sometimes using metal loops or false sleeves - to recover afterwards.
The Rosphere was developed by a four-strong team at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM) who tried to find a method of locomotion that would not be thwarted by uneven or difficult terrain. Wheeled and legged robots can struggle on shifting ground or places strewn with lots of large and small objects.
Chemical weapons are responsible for a comparatively small number of those deaths, and rebels have warned that destroying the weapons will not end the war.
