Bad sleep 'dramatically' alters body

By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News  

A run of poor sleep can have a potentially profound effect on the internal workings of the human body, say UK researchers.

The activity of hundreds of genes was altered when people's sleep was cut to less than six hours a day for a week.
Writing in the journal PNAS, the researchers said the results helped explain how poor sleep damaged health.
Heart disease, diabetes, obesity and poor brain function have all been linked to substandard sleep.
What missing hours in bed actually does to alter health, however, is unknown.
So researchers at the University of Surrey analysed the blood of 26 people after they had had plenty of sleep, up to 10 hours each night for a week, and compared the results with samples after a week of fewer than six hours a night.
More than 700 genes were altered by the shift. Each contains the instructions for building a protein, so those that became more active produced more proteins - changing the chemistry of the body.

Egypt suspends Luxor balloon flights after deadly crash

Governor of Luxor, Ezzat Saad: "I would like to offer my condolences"

The Egyptian authorities have suspended all hot air balloon flights near Luxor and launched an investigation following the deaths of 19 tourists in a crash.

Hong Kong, Japanese, British, French and Hungarian nationals were among those killed on Tuesday morning.
A landing rope is reported to have got caught around a helium gas tube and severed it, after which a fire erupted and the balloon shot up into the air.
It then plunged some 300m (1,000ft) to the ground in a field west of the city.
The pilot and one passenger survived by jumping out of the basket.

Adele's 21 tops 2012 global album chart

Adele's chart-topping album 21 has topped the global albums chart for a second consecutive year.

The album, released in January 2011, sold 8.3 million copies last year, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said.
Overall music revenues were up 0.3% to $16.5bn (£10.9bn) - the first year of industry growth since 1999.
Paul Williams, the head of business analysis at Music Week, said the rise was "very significant".
"After many, many years of decline the graph is finally heading northwards again," he said.
"It underlines the efforts the music industry has been putting in and the results it's now getting in reinventing itself in the digital era."
The IFPI's annual Digital Music Report also showed that digital revenues grew by 9% last year and now account for 34% of total revenue.
Carly Rae Jepsen's hit Call Me Maybe was the best-selling single of 2012, with 12.5 million units sold globally.

Adele outsold her nearest rival, Taylor Swift's Red, by some three million copies.

Former X Factor contestants One Direction had the third and fourth best-selling albums around the world with their first two records Up All Night and Take Me Home, with 4.5 million and 4.4 million copies sold respectively.
There were two other British acts in the top 10 - Rod Stewart's Merry Christmas, Baby was at number seven and Grammy winners Mumford and Sons' Babel was at nine.
Gotye's mega-hit Somebody That I Used To Know was the second biggest-selling single globally, with 11.8 million purchases.