An expedition funded by the National Geographic Society in America said first pictures indicated people lived around the fertile

An expedition funded by the National Geographic Society in America said first pictures indicated people lived around the fertile shores of an ancient freshwater lake before the area was transformed into the Black Sea.Terry Garcia, head of mission programmes for National Geographic, said: "The significance of this find is that for the first time we will have established that human beings had settled in this area and were occupying this area at the time of this cataclysmic event."The excavation of the underwater site, once a fertile river valley running into the ancient lake, has not as yet shed light on whether the flood was instantaneous or a more gradual event that allowed people to evacuate the area gradually. The discovery supports the theory that the seabed was once populated with a prehistoric farming community who had to flee the rising waters, which could have prompted stories of a giant flood.Historians have noticed similarities between the biblical account of Noah's Flood and the Epic of Gilgamesh, a Babylonian poem written in the third millennium BC, suggesting both may be based on the same historical event. Two American geologists, William Ryan and Walter Pitman, suggested four years ago that the floor of the Black Sea was once a freshwater lake surrounded by fertile valleys and plains inhabited by the world's first farmers.They believe that as melting glaciers from the last Ice Age raised sea levels, the Mediterranean suddenly broke through the strip of land separating it from the lower freshwater lake.Calculations suggested the inundation could have caused a giant waterfall many times bigger than Niagara Falls, pouring enough water into the freshwater lake to cause its surface to expand by more than a mile a day.The marine archaeologists are trying to retrieve samples of the submerged structures for radiocarbon dating. Fredrik Hiebert, chief archaeologist on the project, said: "This is a major discovery that will begin to rewrite the history of cultures in this key area between Europe, Asia, and the ancient Middle East.". Peter Salmon, controller of BBC1 has, after months of public criticism, been moved aside by Greg Dyke to become the corporation's sports supremo. Peter Salmon, controller of BBC1 has, after months of public criticism, been moved aside by Greg Dyke to become the corporation's sports supremo. As director of sport he will be required to salvage the BBC's reputation as a sports broadcaster after a year in which it failed to retain rights to Premiership football and lost the presenter Des Lynam to ITV. Lorraine Heggessy, at present co-head of BBC Education, is expected to replace Mr Salmon at BBC1, becoming the channel's first female controller.Mr Dyke, when he took over the top BBC job, promised to appoint a powerful sports chief who would "duck and dive" to win back rights and put sports at the heart of the corporation.But Mr Salmon will run a department depleted by the loss of a host of contracts, including Formula One racing, Ryder Cup golf and Test cricket.A rival at ITV said: "You need a streetfighter in the BBC job, a wheeler-dealer who will be good at securing rights against the odds by collaborating with commercial companies."Mr Dyke had been expected to appoint a high-profile deal-maker from commercial television and BBC sources said they believed the Carlton Television chief executive, Clive Jones, would take the post.

However, they understood the BBC could not afford to buy out Mr Jones from his lucrative position at Carlton.Mr Salmon, a well-respected television programme-maker, has a very different background. He started out as a producer of Crimewatch and BBC2's environmental series Nature, and was executive producer of the Wallace and Gromit animation The Wrong Trousers.Mr Dyke said yesterday: "He brings to the department great experience in programme-making plus an acute awareness of the bigger picture in broadcasting - a picture in which BBC Sport needs to consolidate its position."Earlier this year the BBC's governors condemned the output of BBC1 as being "below standard", saying it relied too much on "lighter factual" programmes such as Changing Rooms and Ground Force. It was the third year in succession that BBC1's performance had been criticised by the governors, which led to mounting speculation that Mr Salmon would move from the job. The rumours increased when, at the Edinburgh Television Festival, Mr Dyke said the channel lacked imaginative ideas, citing its use of soap stars in dramas such as Harbour Lights and Sunburn.Mr Salmon's public image was damaged because he was responsible for the muchcriticised BBC decision not to broadcast coverage of the Queen Mother's birthday pageant.Mr Dyke said: "Peter told Mark Thompson [director of television] and I some months ago that he didn't want to continue as controller of BBC1 beyond this autumn."The appointment of a new controller is itself immersed in controversy. Broadcasting executives said Mr Dyke was clearly reducing the traditional power of the controllers of BBC1 and BBC2. He has introduced a new commissioning system, which will mean that controllers share commissioning power with a new team of genre heads.A former BBC television executive said: "In the past controllers were getting too involved in actual programme-making. They were reading drama scripts, for instance, and getting involved in casting ...

The new system would make sense if the BBC could find a team of really high-powered commissioning editors, but so far they have not pulled it off. For example, there is no drama commissioner in place."Ms Heggessy will face a tough challenge in her new job. Her background is in factual programmes, while BBC1 is in desperate need of popular drama. She has been in the public eye only once in recent years, to appear on Blue Peter to make an on-screen apology for the presenter Richard Bacon when he was sacked after a drugs spree that was exposed in the national press.. A university traditionally seen as being in the vanguard of change dropped affirmative action five years ago. The University of California (UC) decided to stop admitting African Americans and native Americans on lower grades than whites after a campaign by a black businessman from Sacramento, Ward Connerly, who sat on the university's governing body.

A university traditionally seen as being in the vanguard of change dropped affirmative action five years ago. The University of California (UC) decided to stop admitting African Americans and native Americans on lower grades than whites after a campaign by a black businessman from Sacramento, Ward Connerly, who sat on the university's governing body. "We were sacrificing quality," Mr Connerly says. "We were admitting students to Berkeley (UC's flagship campus) who didn't belong there. It wasn't fair to the other students denied admission who had better grades. It was immoral for a nation that prides itself on equality and fairness to be doing this."Under the affirmative action programme, blacks and American Indians were given extra points to compensate for the disadvantage suffered by their racial groups in the past.

This meant that a poor grade point average in school or a poor SAT score (the equivalent of A-levels) could be compensated for by points gained for the colour of skin.When that system was abolished at UC, the number of black students entering Berkeley plummeted by as much as 70 per cent, said Mr Connerly. Instead, the two ethnic groups that had been given special favours began going in greater numbers to some of the university's less prestigious campuses.Other states have been following suit. Washington state has abolished affirmative action, as has Florida. In the southern states of Louisiana, Georgia and Texas the courts have been striking affirmative action down.Mr Connerly argues, however, that a candidate's potential should be broadly defined. It is reasonable for a university to take factors other than grades into account when defining merit, he says. And it is legitimate for admissions tutors to consider the educational environment in which students have been nurtured."But you have to be very careful that you don't compromise academic quality," he says. "Places like Berkeley and the University of London should never sacrifice quality If they do, they won't be able to replace it quickly.".