Jeffrey Almond, a microbiologist at the University of Reading, described the harrowing weekend in March 1996, when the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee was locked away to struggle with the news that the worst had probably happened.

ECONOMIST: The BSE inquiry

"It is with great sadness that the family of Professor Wangari Maathai announces her passing away on 25 September, 2011, at the Nairobi Hospital, after a prolonged and bravely borne struggle with cancer, " the Green Belt Movement said in a statement.

BBC: Kenya's Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai dies aged 71