A US judge on Saturday gagged hackers from telling peers at a notorious DefCon conference how to get free rides by cracking commonly used subway `smart cards.

Operators of a US city transit system were in court Saturday trying to stop hackers from showing thousands of their peers how to get free rides by cracking its fare `smart cards.

BEIJING, July 9, 2008 (AFP) - Tourists will be banned from visiting Beijing's prestigious Peking University during the Olympics, state media said Wednesday, in China's latest security move ahead of next month's Games.

Britain's Oxford University launched Wednesday what it described as its 'most important' ever fundraising campaign to put it on a financial par with top US universities such as Harvard and Yale.

LUSAKA, May 23, 2008 (AFP) - Armed police in Zambia shot and seriously injured two university students in an attempt to disperse a violent demonstration at their campus, police said Friday.

LUSAKA, May 17, 2008 (AFP) - Students from Zambia's biggest university staged violent protests and stoned vehicles to press for an increment in meal allowances, police said Saturday.

University of Zambia students blocked roads near their campus on Friday night before they were dispersed by riot police officers using teargas, a police statement said.

LONDON, May 12, 2008 (AFP) - A British university is to offer a degree in funerals, covering aspects of the profession from bereavement counselling to law, customer service and disposal of human remains, it said Monday.

BERLIN, May 1, 2008 (AFP) - German universities have drawn some of the 20th century's greatest minds but efforts to woo a new generation of international scholars are faltering because foreign students find it difficult to integrate.

LOS ANGELES, April 23, 2008 (AFP) - College students with visions of using technology to save the planet vied in an historic theater here this week to represent the United States at Microsoft's global Imagine Cup finals in Paris.

LONDON, April 14, 2008 (AFP) - Rock star and astrophysics expert Brian May took up his post as a university chancellor on Monday, warning that science funding cuts risked damaging Britain's position on the world stage.

CAIRO, March 23, 2008 (AFP) - Thousands of Egyptian university lecturers held a nationwide strike on Sunday demanding salary increases and better pensions, the latest in a barrage of social unrest against the government.

'We didn't give any classes today and now we're staging a two-hour demonstration,' said Hani al-Husseini, who heads the strike's coordination committee.

SAINT PETERSBURG, March 21, 2008 (AFP) - A Western-funded university in Saint Petersburg said Friday that a controversial order to close had been lifted and that courses would soon restart.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 18, 2008 (AFP) - Microsoft and Intel said Tuesday they are teaming with US universities to unleash the mighty potential of multi-core computer chips.

SAINT PETERSBURG, March 6, 2008 (AFP) - A group of leading academics on Thursday condemned the closure of a Western-funded university in Saint Petersburg, suggesting it may have been shut down for political reasons.

LONDON, March 5, 2008 (AFP) - Michael Wherley of the United's States, twice an Olympic rower, is set to become the oldest oarsman in the 179-year history of the Boat Race when he makes his debut for Oxford University in their annual match against Cambridge University on London's River Thames later this month.

LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS, Feb 27, 2008 (AFP) - A male student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock was wounded Wednesday afternoon in an apparent drive-by shooting as he was walking toward a parking lot on campus, school officials said.

LONDON, Feb 13, 2008 (AFP) - A London appeal court quashed Wednesday the convictions of five young men jailed after Islamist extremist material was found on their computers.

ANKARA, Feb 4, 2008 (AFP) - A senior justice official in Turkey warned Monday his institution would intervene against government plans to end a ban on Islamic headscarves in universities ahead of a key vote on the plan.

BERLIN, Jan 30, 2008 (AFP) - A 53-year-old German university professor went on trial on Wednesday accused of helping students to obtain law doctorates in return for payments or sexual favours.

Lawyers now in senior positions and at least one judge were among those who paid Thomas Abeltshauser to improve their grades at the University of Hanover, the court in Hildesheim heard.

LYON, France, Jan 25, 2008 (AFP) - A French trader alleged to have run up multi-billion-dollar losses at banking giant Societe Generale was not marked out as a 'genius' at university, his former tutor said on Friday.

ROME, Jan 25, 2008 (AFP) - A renowned Italian scientist who publicly agreed with protests against the Pope speaking at a secular University this month had his promotion blocked by right-wing parliamentarians Thursday.

RIYADH, Jan 22, 2008 (AFP) - Saudi Arabia's consultative council has proposed the creation of elected student unions in the universities of the conservative Muslim kingdom, Okaz daily newspaper reported on Tuesday.

ROME, Jan 21, 2008 (AFP) - A row over a cancelled university speech by Pope Benedict XVI took a fresh twist Monday as Italy's government rejected church suggestions it had advised him to pull out, officials said.

VATICAN CITY, Jan 20, 2008 (AFP) - More than 100,000 people filled St Peter's Square on Sunday in a show of support for Pope Benedict XVI after protests by scientists forced him to cancel a university speech.

VATICAN CITY, Jan 20, 2008 (AFP) - More than 100,000 people filled St Peter's Square on Sunday in a show of support for Pope Benedict XVI after protests by scientists forced him to cancel a university speech.

VATICAN CITY, Jan 20, 2008 (AFP) - More than 100,000 people sent up loud cheers on Sunday as Pope Benedict XVI urged academics to be 'respectful of the opinions of others' following an anti-clerical protest led by physics professors in Rome last week.

VATICAN CITY, Jan 20, 2008 (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday urged academics to be 'respectful of the opinions of others' following a protest led by physics professors that prompted him to cancel a speech last week.

ROME, Jan 20, 2008 (AFP) - Tens of thousands of people gathered in St Peter's Square on Sunday in a show of support for Pope Benedict XVI after protests prompted the pontiff to cancel a visit to a secular university.

ROME, Jan 18, 2008 (AFP) - The Roman Catholic Church is hoping to mobilise more than 100,000 people in a show of force this weekend after protests forced the pope to cancel a visit to a university, media reports said Friday.

JERUSALEM, Jan 16, 2008 (AFP) - Classes at Israel's top universities will be suspended indefinitely from Friday unless a strike by teaching assistants is resolved, according to a statement on Wednesday from the heads of the top six institutions.

VATICAN CITY, Jan 16, 2008 (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI was to have said he was the 'voice of moral reason' in a speech he decided not to give at Rome's secular La Sapienza university, according to a text released Wednesday by the Vatican.

ROME, Jan 16, 2008 (AFP) - The Catholic diocese of Rome called on the city's faithful Wednesday to back Pope Benedict XVI against academics who fault the Church leader for positions seen as anti-science.

ROME, Jan 16, 2008 (AFP) - The Catholic diocese of Rome called on the city's faithful Wednesday to back Pope Benedict XVI against academics who fault the Church leader for positions seen as anti-science.

ROME, Jan 16, 2008 (AFP) - The Catholic Church called Wednesday on 'the people of Rome' to come out in support of their bishop, Pope Benedict XVI, after a row with city scientists forced him to cancel a university speech.

ROME, Jan 15, 2008 (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday cancelled a speech at Rome's La Sapienza university in the face of protests led by scientists opposed to a high-profile visit by the head of the Catholic Church to a secular setting.

ROME, Jan 15, 2008 (AFP) - Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi condemned on Tuesday the professors and students at Rome's La Sapienza university whose 'intolerance' led Pope Benedict XVI to postpone a visit there.

VATICAN CITY, Jan 15, 2008 (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday postponed a visit to Rome's La Sapienza university, a Vatican communique said, following protests from some anti-clerical science professors and students.

VATICAN CITY, Jan 15, 2008 (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday postponed a visit to Rome's La Sapienza university, a Vatican communique said, following protests from some anti-clerical science professors and students.

'Following the well-noted controversy of recent days ... it was considered appropriate to postpone the event,' which had been set for Thursday, the communique said.