Plus, if you are taking geography as well, your coursework can be easily modified for use in both subjects. What subjects go with it? Pretty much anything, but geography and biology are both particularly complementary. What degrees does it lead to? Environmental science, forestry, geography, conservation ­ and it’s popular with students planning to do medicine.Will it set you up for a brilliant career? Yes, there are lots of jobs in conservation in local or national government, and for charities. There are also plenty of careers in environmental management, such as becoming a recycling manager, or a ranger for a national park.

And if you work for a private company, you may be handsomely rewarded for your efforts.What do the students say? “I’ve always been interested in how pollution affects the environment, and how to solve the problem,” says Neal Roye, who studies environmental science at Abbey College, Birmingham. “I really enjoy the subject ­ the only downside is all the definitions you have to learn.”Which awarding bodies offer it? AQA.How widely available is it around the country? A lot of further education colleges offer it, but only about 10 per cent of schools.Clare Rudebeckc.rudebeck independent.co.uk. Nine men who lived in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan have been convicted at the Old Bailey of hijacking a jet and flying it to Stansted airport. After the first trial collapsed in April when the jury failed to reach a verdict, the judge, Mr Justice Butterworth, criticised the amount spent on defending the men. Each had two barristers and several interpreters.The hijackers insisted they were members of a group called the Young Intellectuals of Afghanistan and were forced to flee for fear of arrest and execution.

Richard Ferguson QC, representing one defendant, told the jury: “This was a desperate gamble taken by desperate men, flight or death. The choice was stark and simple, either you get out or you die.”At the beginning of the second trial, the judge, Sir Edwin Jowitt, warned the jury not to be influenced by the 11 September terrorist attacks.The Ariana Airline jet, carrying 173 passengers and 14 crew, had been setting off for a 40-minute internal flight from Kabul to Mazar-i-Sharif on 6 February last year when the men, armed with automatic handguns, grenades and knives, took control. The plane was diverted to Tashkent, then Khazakstan and later Moscow before arriving at the Essex airport at 2am on 7 February.A small number of the passengers – including a man complaining of a heart attack – were released earlier but others were told they would be killed if they tried to leave.The atmosphere was predominately calm, the court heard, although the passengers remained in fear and were force to endure increasingly squalid conditions. They were released after 76 hours when the hijackers gave themselves up to police, having demanded to talk to a United Nations representative.The nine defendants were found guilty of hijack by majorities of 10 to one on Wednesday A ban on reporting the verdicts was lifted yesterday. The men were also unanimously found guilty of four further charges of false imprisonment, possessing grenades and possessing firearms. They were remanded in custody until 18 January for reports prior to sentencing.Ali Safi, 38, Abdul Shohab, 21, Taimur Shah, 29, Kazim Mohammed, 28, Reshad Ahmadi, 19, Nazamuddin Mohammidy, 28, Abdul Ghayur, 25, Mohammed Showaib, 26, Mohammed Safi, 33, had pleaded not guilty, claiming they acted under duress.

A tenth man, Waheed Lutfi, 23, was found not guilty of similar charges and had been cleared of hijacking at the first trial.. Information given to Special Branch that republicans were targeting Omagh was not passed on to RUC officers before a Real IRA bomb killed 29 people in the town, according to an official report. It generated shock and dismay among relatives of the victims.Although the report, by Ombudsman Mrs Nuala O’Loan, is not scheduled for publication until next week, some of its draft findings emerged yesterday. It revealed that 11 days before the attack an anonymous caller told a detective the date of the planned attack. But Special Branch did not inform uniformed RUC officers of the warning and failed to tell the force’s divisional commander.The warning was not revealed even after the bombing, when it might have aided the investigation into the 29 murders.The report also suggests the investigation, said to have been one of the most comprehensive ever carried out by the RUC, had been hampered by confusion at leadership level, inadequate resources, inexperienced staff and insufficient exchange of information with police in the Irish Republic.Despite the scale of the investigation, no one has been charged in Northern Ireland in connection with the attack. The trial of one man allegedly linked to the incident is taking place in the Republic.The Police Service of Northern Ireland, which has taken over from the RUC, reacted sharply. A spokesman said: “We consider this report contains so much significant factual inaccuracies, unwarranted assumptions, misunderstandings and material omissions that a request has been made to the Ombudsman’s office for a reasonable period of time to respond in detail with what we see as the serious deficiencies in this report.”In Omagh last night there was despair.