SANTIAGO, Jun 6 (IPS) - Gabriela, 32, is delighted with Chile's new law establishing equal wages for men and women doing the same work. But the discrimination she has experienced in the workplace makes her wary of premature optimism.

On May 20, the Chilean parliament unanimously approved the law to close the wage gap, introducing the principle of equal remuneration for men and women into the Labour Code.

The following day, in her traditional state of the nation speech to Congress, socialist President Michelle Bachelet praised lawmakers for passing the law.

"The law on the wage gap will promote something that is deeply felt by all of us: that the men and women of our country should receive equal pay for equal work," said Bachelet, who signed the bill into law on Jun. 2.

According to the National Institute of Statistics, women workers in Chile earn on average 31.1 percent less than men. But among professionals, the wage gap is as high as 49.8 percent, according to the Labour Directorate.

The law states that employers must abide by the principle of equal remuneration for men and women who do work of equal value. However, differences in pay based on objective grounds, including employee skills and qualifications, fitness, responsibility or productivity, "shall not be considered arbitrary," it says.

The veteran soldier also holds the record as the last survivor of the Battle of Judland, the last surviving member of the Royal Naval Air Service and the last surviving founding member of the Royal Air Force.

The Royal Navy and the RAF take it in turns to host Mr Allingham's party and this year it is being held at HMS President, a building overlooking the River Thames, near London's Tower Bridge.

Curcumin, an ingredient in turmeric, which is used widely in Indian cuisine, is believed to prevent changes in the brain by blocking the spread of amyloid plaques - toxic protein deposits thought to play a key role in Alzheimer's.

Members of the Royal College of Psychiatrists were told at their annual meeting in Liverpool that laboratory and animal studies have already produced strong evidence that curry combats dementia.

A clinical trial is now under way in California to test the effects of curcumin on a group of Alzheimer's patients.

Indian-born American expert Professor Murali Doraiswamy said: "You can modify a mouse so that at about 12 months its brain is riddled with plaques. If you feed it a curcumin-rich diet it dissolves these plaques. The same diet prevented younger mice from forming new plaques.

"The next step is to test curcumin on human amyloid plaque formation using newer brain scans and there are plans for that."

Female students are ahead of men in almost every measure of UK university achievement, according to a report from higher education researchers.

A Higher Education Policy Institute report shows that women are more likely to get places in the top universities and go on to get better grades.

Women also outnumber men in high status subjects, such as law and medicine.

The institute's director, Bahram Bekhradnia, says the cause of this gender gap remains uncertain.