Fans were upset after Axl Rose’’s band arrived nearly an hour late.

The singer was forced to stop the O2 set 20 minutes in during Welcome To The Jungle and said: “Here’’s the deal: One more bottle and we go home.”

After being hit by two or three missiles, speaking from the stage in Dublin after halting Welcome To The Jungle mid song, Rose said: “It’’s up to you. We would like to stay. We want to stay. We want to have some fun.

“If you don”t want to have fun, all you”ve got to do is let us know. We”ve got no problem – we”ll go on our way,” the BBC quoted him as saying.

Following the walk off a member of staff at the venue addressed the audience and said: “We”re trying hard to get Axl to come back on stage. I will ask you to refrain from throwing items. I promise you a great show, but you need to be calm.”

After a break of 60 minutes the band did return to the stage to play a set, which continued until 1am to the fans who remained in the venue.

A joint statement issued by promoters MCD and the O2 has apologised to fans for the late running but added: “No artist should be subjected to missiles and unknown substances being thrown at them.” (ANI)

India’s Ambassador to China S. Jaishankar met Chinese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Zhang Zhijun in Beijing on Friday.

Jaishankar conveyed New Delhi’s concern over the reported presence of Chinese troops in the Gilgit Baltistan region of POK.

Earlier, a New York Times report had carried a story about the presence of an estimated seven to eleven thousand soldiers of the Chinese army in the Gilgit region to get the road and rail access to the Gulf through Pakistan.

External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash had said on Monday that if the reports are true, it could be a matter of serious concern.

The Chinese side explained that they were present in the Gilgit area to help provide assistance to the people affected by recent floods.

China’’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Jiang Yu said yesterday that it was a fabricated story aimed at destroying China’’s relations with Pakistan and India.

Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Masood Khan too denied the report, saying that only a Chinese humanitarian assistance team was present in the area to assist flood victims. (ANI)

The Pakistan defence ministry released a statement saying that US Under Secretary of State for Defense, Michelle Flournoy, called up Pakistan’s Defence Secretary Syed Athar Ali, and “apologised over the mistreatment meted out to Pakistani military delegation”, the Dawn reports.

“Syed Athar Ali expressed serious concern over the incident and emphasised the need for an institutionalised mechanism where such like incidents are averted.”

“Ms. Flournoy assured secretary defence that all necessary measures will be institutionalised after mutual consultations to avoid recurrence of any untoward incident in future,” the statement said further.

The nine-member Pakistani military delegation was deboarded from a plane at Dulles airport, Washington. Although the delegates disclosed their identities and showed relevant documents, they were reportedly detained and interrogated for over two hours. When they were released, they had already missed their flight to Tampa, Florida.

The US Department of Defense issued an apology, but the delegates had by that time received directions from Pakistan to cancel the meeting. (ANI)

According to The Telegraph, at least five wives came face to face with mistresses whose existence was kept from them by their husbands, who have been trapped more than 2,300 feet below a cave since August 5 this year.

Government officials are considering asking the 33 trapped miners to name those they want to claim the benefits entitled to them in a bid to solve problems on the surface.

According to Red Cross workers, some of the miners have children from numerous women, all of whom are now claiming their right over the compensation. So far, the aid providers have come across five families, but believe that more such cases might pop up in the near future.

Some women turned up at the camp to discover that their partners already had a wife and children whom they knew nothing about, the paper reports.

One miner reportedly has four women fighting over him. All of them, including, a first wife he never divorced, his live-in partner, a mother of a child he had several years ago, and a woman who claims to be his current girlfriend gathered at the camp to claim their rights.

The team of psychologists charged with ensuring the mental welfare of the men below ground are attempting keep such developments from reaching the miners. (ANI)

“You create the God and you create the monster, no? This is my team. We lost one game in the World Cup, against Germany, after one big mistake from the ref. No one remembers this,” The Sun quoted Capello, as saying.

“But, after that, opinion about me changed completely. Still, it’s no problem for me. I can live with it. It is part of a manager’s job. When you win, you’re the best. When you lose, you’re the worst.”

“We have to play without fear. The players have trained with a lot of confidence and we have to see that against Bulgaria,” he added.

The England team will take on Bulgaria in their opening Euro 2012 qualifier tonight.

The Italian further said that he was pleased with the reaction of the fans during last month’s friendly against Hungary.

“I was a little concerned in the last game but, after 10 minutes, the fans stopped booing and supported us,” Capello said.

“We owe them. The supporters of England are fantastic, the best in the world,” he added. (ANI)

Richard Edwards underwent an 18-hour transplant procedure at a hospital in Louisville about a week ago.

The 55-year-old chiropractor from Edmond, Oklahoma, had his hands severely burned in a fire in 2006.

“I feel fantastic,” the Telegraph quoted him as telling the Louisville Courier-Journal.

“I”m feeling very blessed and thankful for having a new pair of hands,” he added.

Doctors have said Edwards” progress is ahead of other patients because they were able to route his existing nerves into the donor hands.

Edwards was the country’’s third double hand transplant recipient. (ANI)

“Azad emphasised the need for a coordinated effort to tackle the outbreak,” said Walia after the meeting.

There have been 1,081 dengue cases so far.

On August 23, Azad said large-scale construction for the upcoming Commonwealth Games was responsible the huge number of dengue cases in the national capital.

“Mosquitoes breeding at construction sites is one of the reasons behind the menace. The presence of dengue and water is strongly related,” said Azad, while asking the people to remain alert and take preventive measures.

“Delhi is dug up because of the Games, and it is also raining very heavily in the city after a long time. Since water remains accumulated in many places, it becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes,” he added.

Health officials have said that the number of dengue cases this year is highest in the last six years.

The Delhi Government has also swung into action to contain the rise in dengue cases by issuing a host of advisories and announcing several services, while urging Delhiites not to panic.

Dengue is transmitted by the bite of an Aedes mosquito infected with any one of the four-dengue viruses.

The 2010 Commonwealth Games, which kicks off on October 3, is India’’s biggest sporting event since the 1982 Asian Games.

India is expecting about two million tourists in New Delhi for the Games, as well as about 10,000 athletes from 71 teams representing 54 Commonwealth member states. (ANI)

University of Michigan Medical School researchers have suggested that such food is responsible for poor diet quality that may be associated with being overweight, obese or at risk of health problems like diabetes and coronary artery disease.

The study also looked at foods sold in school stores, snack bars and other related sales that compete with USDA lunch program offerings and found that these pose the same health and diet risks in school-aged children.

“The foods that children are exposed to early on in life influence the pattern for their eating habits as adults,” said Madhuri Kakaralaof the U-M Medical School.

Researchers analysed data from 2,309 children in grades 1 through 12 from schools across the country. Interviewers administered questionnaires to obtain 24-hour food intake data on a given school day. Second-day food intake data was obtained from a group of students to account for day-to-day usual intakes.

Among those surveyed, 22 percent of school children consumed competitive or vended food items in a school day.

Usage was highest in high school, where 88 percent of schools had vending machines, compared to 52 percent of middle schools and 16 percent of elementary schools.

Competitive food and beverage consumers had significantly higher sugar intakes and lower dietary fiber, vitamin B levels and iron intakes than non-consumers.

“Consumption of vended foods and beverages currently offered in U.S. schools is detrimental to children’’s diet quality.

“Childhood obesity, resulting from poor dietary choices, such as those found in this study, greatly increases the risk for many chronic diseases. A healthy school food environment can reduce these dietary risks,” said Kakarala.

The findings appeared in the Journal of School Health. (ANI)

There are plenty of things, big or small, that can wreck an otherwise great relationship. Now, Dr Barton Goldsmith, a California-based psychotherapist and the author of ”100 Ways to Boost Your Self-Confidence – Believe in Yourself and Others Will Too” reveals what all can kill romantic relationships and how to save it from falling apart.

1. Money: It’’s the root of all evils, as they say. If a partner has been unscrupulous, getting the trust back can be a challenge, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

2. Sex/infidelity: A sexless marriage or unfaithfulness can extinguish love quicker than blowing out a candle. Don”t let the flame burn out and try to renew your sex life.

3. Disrespect: Research shows that belittling, insulting or yelling at your partner can cut the chances of your relationship’’s survival.

4. Children: Some live for them, others would rather kill themselves. Make sure to keep things in balance with your partner, so you have the energy to deal with any child issues.

5. Opposite-sex friends: If you don”t want your spouse/partner to dine out and have drinks with a member of the opposite sex, then you need to follow the same guidelines.

6. Resentments: Don”t hold your pain, hurt or anger inside. If you are harbouring some resentment talk it out and put the matter to rest, so you can enjoy your relationship.

7. Lying/broken promises: Even if you”re afraid of getting in trouble, tell the whole truth and don”t break promises, and find a way to make up for past mistakes.

8. Laziness: Keeping a relationship is hard work, and if you are unwilling to do it, your connection will diminish and you will begin to resent your partner.

9. Being mean: If you punish your partner when you don”t get your way, or if the two of you give each other the silent treatment, you are headed for a lifetime of emotional pain. Stop the nastiness and learn to talk about it.

10. Discomfort/remodelling. If you are living in a construction zone, it’’s pretty hard to feel comfortable. Injury or illness can create a similar situation. Your home should be a place of serenity, so if you are remodelling or are dealing with physical issues, make your comfort a priority. (ANI)

Readers of Conde Nast Traveller magazine have voted Scotland’’s capital ahead of runner-up Oxford and last year’’s winner, London, citing its “culture” and “user-friendliness” as its major plus points.

Edinburgh has topped the list three times since the awards began in 1989.

Conde Nast asked its readers to score each city out of a maximum of 100 according to criteria such as service, culture and value for money.

“This result is great news for the city and confirms what we all know: Edinburgh is a great place in which to visit, invest, live, work and study,” the Scotsman quoted Jenny Dawe of Edinburgh City Council as saying.

“The city truly has the best of everything; historic buildings and great atmosphere, a vibrant leisure and retail offering, abundant green space, outstanding schools and universities -the list goes on. It is little wonder that people continue to think of Edinburgh as a must-visit location,” she added. (ANI)

The 82-year-old has agreed to play a local dignitary in the Spanish resort for the upcoming series on ITV.

“Roger is a massive fan so we thought it would be fun to get him involved,” the Sun quoted an insider as saying.

“They”ve gone for something which they think he”ll be comfortable with – a local dignitary.

“He’’s known for playing smooth and authoritative characters so it is right up his street,” he added.

Moore is due to fly to the popular resort in the next few days to film his scenes. (ANI)

The two MoUs were signed in the presence of Defence Minister A K Antony and his South Korean counterpart Kim Tae-young in Seoul.

The first MoU envisages an exchange of defence-related experience and information, a mutual exchange of visits by military personnel and experts, including civilian staff associated with the defence services, military education and training and the conduct of military exercises.

It also envisages an exchange of visits of ships and aircraft, as jointly decided between the two countries.

The MoU aims to promote cooperation in humanitarian assistance and international peace keeping activities, and will remain valid for five years with a provision for extension for five more years.

The Second MoU signed by the Chief Controller of Research and Development of DRDO, Dr Prahlada and Vice Commissioner, Defence Acquisition and Procurement Agency (DAPA) of South Korea, Kwon Oh Bong will seek to identify futuristic defence technology areas of mutual interest and pursuing of research and development works in both countries.

Co- development and co-production of defence products with Indian industry through DRDO are also envisaged.

There will be joint IPR on all the products developed through this mechanism. Some areas of immediate interest e.g., marine systems, electronics and intelligent systems have been identified as priority tasks.

Speaking on the occasion, Antony said he hoped his visit will start a new chapter in the relationship between the two nations.

“New Delhi will be happy to see the defence industry relationship to be more than a buyer-seller relationship and its further evolution into transfer of technology, joint production and joint research and development,” said Antony.

“The two MoUs signed today will provide a win-win scenario for the two countries in a number of areas,” said Kim Tae-young.

The talks between the two countries covered a wide range of security issues- both regional and global.

“India and South Korea share common perception of maintaining peace as well as ensuring safety and security of sea lanes of communication in the region. He said regular exchanges towards ensuring maritime security is important to both countries, especially in securing vital energy supplies that pass through the Indian Ocean,” said Antony.

“It is of particular importance for like- minded countries working in the Gulf of Aden to coordinate efforts and also exchange information on the happenings in the area. We look forward to continued and enhanced cooperation between the navies of India and South Korea in this regard”,” he added.

Commenting on the regional security scenario in the Indian subcontinent, Antony said: “We live in a troubled neighbourhood. ” Some call it a fragile region. We have to maintain balance and restraint even in the face of grave challenges to our security.”

“. Our intention is to develop friendly and cooperative relations with all our neighbours so that we can focus on our major development needs”,” he added.

Antony said India looks at itself as an integral part of East Asia.

“India is a founding member of East Asia Summit and as such, looks at the emerging architecture in East Asia as open and inclusive. ”That is why we welcome the decision of ASEAN Foreign Ministers to move towards the inclusion of the United States and Russia as members of the East Asia Summit,” said Antony.

“We look forward to working closely with South Korea in the emerging architecture in this part of the world”,” he added.

This morning, Antony along with the delegation drove down to the National Cemetery in Seoul and laid a wreath there.

He also inspected, amid light drizzle, a traditional colourful inter-services guard of honour presented by the South Korean Armed Forces on arrival at the Ministry of Defence Head quarters

During his two-day visit to South Korea, Antony is accompanied by a high-level delegation including the Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar, Vice Admiral RK Dhowan, Lt General KT Parnaik, Dr. Prahlada and Sundaram Krishna. (ANI)

Validating the Lupus Research Institute’’s (LRI’’s) “Human Lupus Biology” initiative to translate mouse findings to human disease, Betty Tsao of the University of California Los Angeles has established that alterations in the TLR7 gene promote lupus.

“This is an extremely important scientific and medical advance,” said Mark Shlomchik of Yale University.

“Before this work, it was known that Toll like receptors 7 and 9 were important in mouse models of lupus, but there was no good evidence for this in people. We only had some evidence that other genes that may work with TLRs were linked to lupus.

“Dr. Tsao’’s finding that an overactive TLR7 is associated with lupus risk directly implicates the TLR7 gene itself in lupus,” Shlomchik said.

Dr. Tsao’’s discovery that the lupus link to TLR7 is stronger in males supports the idea that there are different genetic pathways to lupus between males and females.

Only 10 percent of people with lupus are male, but the disease tends to be particularly severe in this population.

In her novel study, Tsao and colleagues noted that men with an extra X (female) chromosome have a higher risk for lupus, and predicted that genes located on the X chromosome would be critical in male lupus.

After genotyping DNA of blood samples from over 4,000 people with lupus from East Asia, the team discovered a variant form of the TLR7 gene associated with lupus.

The link was stronger in men of Chinese and Japanese ethnicity-89 percent of men with lupus had the risk allele, compared with only 77 percent of healthy male subjects.

“Now that we know the sex-specific genetic contributions to lupus, we can proceed to find more targeted therapies than currently exist,” said Tsao.

The findings appeared the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). (ANI)

Researchers have found that by measuring the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in strands of hair they can even predict if an attack is imminent.

Cortisol is normally monitored in urine and saliva but those tests reveal stress levels only at the time the sample is taken, so cannot show long-term patterns.

But, Dr Gideon Koren and Dr Stan Van Uum at the University of Western Ontario instead decided to measure cortisol in hair.

“Intuitively we know stress is not good for you, but it’s not easy to measure,” the Daily Express quoted Koren as saying.

“We know that on average, hair grows one centimetre a month, and so if we take a hair sample six centimetres long we can determine stress levels for six months,” he added.

The team studied 56 men at the Meir Medical Centre in Israel after they suffered heart attacks.

Hair samples were taken from them and from a control group.

Higher cortisol levels were found in all the heart patients in the three months leading up to the attack.

This indicated that after accounting for the known risk factors, hair cortisol content emerged as the strongest predictor of a heart attack in the weeks before it strikes.

“Stress is a serious part of modern life affecting many areas of health and life,” wrote Koren in the medical journal Stress.

“This has implications for research and for practice, as stress can be managed with lifestyle changes and psychotherapy,” he added. (ANI)

From June to August, 14-year-old Brittany Lopez spent most of her waking hours with her head in a book.

With the feat, she was proudly crowned the winner of the New York Public Library’’s Summer Reading 2010 contest at Yankee Stadium yesterday.

“At times, I did go outside and play and hang out with my friends, but I think reading is the most important,” the New York Daily News quoted the Morris High School ninth-grader as saying.

“It helps your creativity. It’’s not only for entertainment, it helps your knowledge,” she added.

Brittany’’s favourite book was Ellen Schreiber’’s ‘Vampire Kisses’, but she also devoured the Harry Potter series and dozens of Japanese comics, known as manga.

“My mind is like a sponge. I take it all in,” she said.

The Bank of America-sponsored competition was open to all city students, who kept a log of the number of books they read cover-to-cover over the summer months.

The most improved reader was Christian Rosario, 7, who lives in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Other winners included Gartim Li, 17, from Manhattan; Amanda Ciaramella, 15, from Staten Island; Aliah Gilkes, 10, from Canarsie, Brooklyn; Dynasty Williams, 12, from the Bronx; Isabella Rosario, 5, from Staten Island, and Jordan Santos, 18, from Harlem.

The bookish brood got to stand on the field at Yankee Stadium, meet outfielder Curtis Granderson and have the cameras flash their images onto the Jumbotron as the crowd cheered.

“Curtis Granderson pinched me to check I wasn”t dreaming. I wasn”t,” added Rosario. (ANI)

When the ‘Dancing With the Stars’ beauty recently stayed at the Marcel Hotel in Gramercy, she receieved careful treatment from the staff.

“Staff were instructed to keep their eyes out for any Peeping Toms, checked who was staying in neighbouring rooms and guarded her room,” the New York Post quoted a source as saying.

Other stars checking in there included Nikki Blonsky, the star of ABC’’s ‘Huge’ and rapper Trey Songz. (ANI)

The blast took place in Mardan, which is located in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Xinhua quoted police sources, as saying. (ANI)

The tinny fizz produced by most laptops”” built-in speakers spoils the music quality because the USB port, from which they get their power, can supply only 2.5 watts. Now, the British firm NXT of Cambourne, Cambridgeshire, has come up with a USB-powered system that can deliver up to 15 watts to each speaker, reports New Scientist.

Although power from mains-powered units is held at around 32 volts, a USB 2.0 port can deliver no more than 5.25 volts to a device.

NXT chief executive James Lewis says that most of the time music is quiet enough to be reproduced satisfactorily by circuits running at just 1 volt. So NXT built its USB-powered amplifier to run at low voltage, but able to deliver higher voltages – and more power to the speakers.

This is done by tapping a pair of capacitors that store spare power from the USB during quiet passages. By pre-determining the music signal a couple of milliseconds ahead of the amplifier, the system determines exactly when to raise the voltage and unleash the stored power.

“It”’’s the first time I””ve heard of using the dynamic reallocation of power for this type of application. It seems like a great idea,” said Andy Dowell, a director of Dolby Laboratories in the UK.

“People would love to get more oomph out of the PC speakers.” (ANI)

According to National Geographic News, the five-inch-long (13-centimeter-long) Calumma tarzan lives in the Tarzan Forest, near the village formerly known as Tarzanville.

The team thought naming the new species after the vine-swinging “ape man” might be a good way to “promote the conservation of this species and of course of the forest that it’’s living in,” according to Philip-Sebastian Gehring, an evolutionary biologist at the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany.

After all, “Tarzan stands for a jungle hero and fighting for protecting the forest,” Gehring said.

Gehring and colleagues suspect the Tarzan chameleon will be labelled as a critically endangered species. Even so, the team found up to 60 chameleons in one fragment alone, suggesting the new species can still come out swinging.

The study is published August 20 in the journal Salamandra. (ANI)

“We predicted where the oil was going to go,” said Igor Mezic.

“We were able to do 3-day predictions pretty accurately,” he added.

Mezic, Sophie Loire and colleagues at the software development company Aimdyn, Inc. in Santa Barbara and at NASA’’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, generated frequent forecasts of the movement of the spill and passed them on to those involved in the cleanup.

Mezic and his colleagues successfully predicted where and when oil washed ashore in the Mississippi River Delta and later, on the white-sand beaches of Pensacola, Florida, and they forecast that the spill would then move east toward Panama City Beach.

The solution was based on computations that describe how slicks of oil tend to be stretched into filaments by motion at the sea surface. To make that possible, the researchers incorporated forecasts of sea surface conditions from a U.S. Navy model.

Mezic said that his method could also be applied to other contaminants such as ash spewed out of an erupting volcano or warm air seeping into a climate-controlled building.

The paper is published online Sept. 2 in Science Express. (ANI)

In his response, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster claimed that sex trafficking “rarely” occurs on the website, reports The Politico.

However, since the past 14 months when it implemented manual screening, Craigslist has made only 109 reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children – less than 1 percent of the 700,000 ads were actually reported to the proper authorities.

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children President and CEO Ernie Allen addressed the shift of sexual exploitation from the streets to Craigslist and other online venues, where children are marketed for sex.

Although the website has employed credit card validation, screening ads, and reported suspicious ads, “American kids continue to be marketed and sold online for sex. The problem is not declining, it is growing. The goal is to end this insidious ‘industry.’ Craigslist needs to do more, and every other online classifieds company needs to join them,” she said.

Although the site has asked users to report any illicit content, the final responsibility is its own. And with expected earnings of $36 million dollars this year from its adult services section alone, Craigslist has the resources to prevent and respond to sex trafficking on its site.

Politico has reiterated the request made by the 16 state attorneys general for Craigslist to shut down its adult services section, saying that “trying” to fix this problem is just not good enough when children are the victims. (ANI)

Match.com, which conducted the survey, constantly monitors its activity, from messages sent between members, to the flirtatious “wink,” to photo or information changes on a member’’s profile.

“The numbers were really unbelievable,” ABC News quoted Whitney Casey, Match.com’’s relationship insider, as saying.

“[They were] up 33.5 percent – it was the most active summer,” she added.

Casey believes the rising trend is a result of smartphones and an increase in the number of people using Match.com’’s applications for the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android phones.

She also said that Match.com’’s recent merger with Yahoo Personals and general growth in the online dating category helped boost dating activity on the site this summer.

“Your phone is your mobile computer. If you”re finding the movie you”re going to see on your phone, if you”re finding out where you”re going to eat on your phone, you”re going to find your next relationship on your phone too,” Casey said.

Miami topped the list because it’s one of the most mobile-friendly cities, Casey said.

“They”re much more savvy with using mobile phones,” she said.

The list is as follows:

1. Miami

2. New York

3. Los Angeles

4. Chicago

5. Washington, DC

6. Dallas

7. San Diego

8. Phoenix

9. Boston

10. Houston (ANI)

Michael Lohan made the announcement days after LiLo’’s release from UCLA Medical Center.

He is in the process of “negotiating the location” of a holistic rehab facility that would bar patients from resorting to prescription drugs to get over their addictions.

“I”m going to have a protocol that will be have to be followed. I don”t believe in prescription drugs,” the Daily Star quoted him as saying.

“If people come in on them they”re going to have to get off of them, otherwise they”ll be looking for another rehab,” he added. (ANI)

The book titled “Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities – A guide by Commonwealth Secretariat” was released in the presence of a host of luminaries and key members of the NHRC.

An NHRC release said that it has been deeply concerned about the protection and promotion of rights of persons with disabilities. The Commission is of the view that the persons with disabilities should enjoy all human rights on an equal basis with others. Towards this end, the Commission has adopted a multi-pronged approach which includes redressal of individual complaints, legislative and policy reform, spreading of awareness etc.

The Commission has been involved since the formative stages of the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The Commission advocated the ratification of the UN convention and finally the Government of India ratified the Convention on 1st October 2007.

As a follow up action, the Commission appointed a Special Rapporteur on Disability related issues and constituted a Core Advisory Group on Disability to advise the Commission on matters connected with and incidental to the promotion, protection and monitoring of the human rights for persons with disabilities.

With a view to assess whether existing Programmes and Policies for persons with disabilities are having the desired impact and to identify gaps in implementation, if any, and to suggest appropriate strategies to deal with them, the Commission organized five Regional review meetings on Disability during 2008-09 in various parts of the country.

The Commission has advocated to the Government of India for the ratification of Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Commission is of the view that the Optional Protocol will strengthen the accountability mechanism and serve as an additional tool for the promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities.

The Commission reviewed The Copy Right (Amendment) Bill, 2010 from Human Rights perspective and noted that it does not meet the demand of print disabled person. With a view to protect the rights of the print disabled people, the Commission made recommendations for amendments in The Copy Right (Amendment) Bill, 2010 which is being examined by the Parliamentary Standing Committee.

With a view to monitor the implementation of various laws, policies, concerning the rights of the persons with disabilities, Special Rapporteurs, NHRC have been visiting various states. The Commission has also asked all the State Governments to give wide publicity to UNPRCD to create awareness regarding the rights of persons with disabilities.

The book enumerates various provisions of the Convention in a very simple and informative manner. It not only clarifies that States should not discriminate against persons with disabilities, but also sets out the many steps that States must take to create an enabling environment so that persons with disabilities can enjoy real equality in society.

Further, this book is also accessible to the persons with visual impairments. This publication has been released simultaneously at the four centers around the world by the Commonwealth Secretariat. In recognition of the work done by NHRC in the field of protecting and promoting Human Rights of persons with disabilities, NHRC is selected as one of the four institutions for releasing this book. (ANI)

The genes and enzymes responsible for producing sunscreen molecules in one such cyanobacterium have now been identified, a step towards making bio-inspired sun protection.

Also known as blue-green algae, cyanobacteria have existed on Earth for 3.4 billion years. They get their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis, but in doing so, they must expose themselves to UV radiation, which damages DNA molecules – a serious problem for early life, before the “great oxygenation event” around 2.4 billion years ago.

One way today’’s cyanobacteria combat UV exposure is to make small-molecule sunscreens called mycosporines and mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs) that absorb the harmful rays.

Now, for the first time, Emily Balskus and Christopher Walsh of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, have found the genes and enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of these sunscreen molecules.

Using a genome-mining approach, the duo identified a gene cluster that could be responsible for making sunscreen molecules in a cyanobacterium called Anabaena variabilis.

To test the genes, they expressed the cluster in the bacterium Escherichia coli, which normally does not make sunscreen molecules. Afterwards, the team found the bacteria could make the molecules.

They found that four enzymes were responsible for synthesising the MAA molecules.

Each MAA has two amino acids linked to a central organic group.

It is the amino-acid linkages that are important for determining the wavelength and strength of UV absorbance, they said.

“Our work could be a starting point for devising new routes to these molecules or analogues using a biocatalytic or biological engineering approach,” New Scientist quoted Balskus as saying.

“We don”t yet know if biological sunscreens will end up being any better than man-made sunscreen ingredients, since Helioguard is a relatively new product. But they do have the photochemical properties desirable in sunscreens,” she added.

Bradley Moore of the University of California, San Diego, says the work solves a long-standing biosynthetic question concerning MAAs in diverse organisms.

“It’’s a beautiful study and a very illuminating one that may have applicability for the development of new sunscreens,” he added.

The study has been published in the journal Science. (ANI)

According to sources, the sensitivity of Friday increased especially after the arrest of an alleged suicide bomber on Wednesday from Imamia Colony.

The sources said that intelligence agencies have forwarded its reports to all the authorities concerned, The Daily Times reports.

At least 37 people were killed, and 250 injured in Wednesday’s triple bombing on a religious procession in the metropolis. (ANI)

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) has published a list of its strangest finds following the discovery of the birds at Gatwick Airport last month.

Officials believe the pigeons, which were found stuffed in a briefcase, were destined for restaurants in the UK.

Nobody has reclaimed the birds – or the pair of boots found with them.

The UKBA is still pondering the mysterious state of the birds – found by a baggage handler on August 9.

They were in a briefcase, weighing 21kg (46lbs) and also containing a pair of boots, which had been left by a baggage carousel.

“It had no identifying tag or anything to indicate where it had come from,” the BBC quoted a Border Agency spokeswoman as saying.

“UKBA seized the pigeons on public health grounds as they could have come from a country that has bird flu,” she added.

Some of the birds had had their feathers removed and officials suspect this means they were being smuggled for use in restaurants.

The spokeswoman said that owing to the mysterious nature of the case, staff has collated a list of their strangest animal finds during the past few years.

These include a passenger who was found at Heathrow Airport trying to smuggle his pet boa constrictor snake into the UK by wrapping it around his leg and another passenger who tried to smuggle 40 rare parrot eggs in a customised vest under his shirt.

The eggs were put into an incubator and the parrots that hatched were sent to zoos across the UK.

Border officials said another occasion, which astonished them, was when they found a striped animal skin in a man’’s luggage.

They suspected it was an endangered species but further tests revealed it to be dog skin painted to look like tiger skin.

Other memorable cases include a parcel sent from Tanzania which was found to contain a puff adder and gaboon viper – both of which are highly venomous snakes.

A sniffer dog at Heathrow Airport discovered a man from Shanghai carrying 42 dried seahorses. He said these were to be used for medicinal purposes.

It is illegal to bring undeclared live animals, endangered species of plants and animals or goods made from them into the UK. (ANI)

The bracelets are part of a nationwide campaign launched several months ago to make young people more aware of breast cancer.

The Clovis Unified School District in central California is one of the latest to ban the bracelets.

District spokeswoman Kelly Avants said that the bracelets violate the school’’s dress code.

“We have an existing dress code that specifically states clothing, jewelry or accessories with sexually suggestive language or images is not allowed at school,” ABC News quoted Avants as saying.

A number of other school districts require students to flip the bracelets inside out so the word “boobies” is not visible.

Despite some schools” cracking down on the bracelets, students have been vocal about the novelty items on blogs and other sites such as Facebook, saying they want to wear them in support of what they believe is a good cause.

Parents” opinions are mixed, judging by postings on a variety of parenting blogs.

Keep A Breast, the nonprofit organization that’’s running the bracelet campaign, said it’’s geared toward young people, to raise awareness about the disease and educate them about breast health.

In addition to bracelets, there are “I [heart] Boobies T-shirts.

“The T-shirts and bracelets act as an awareness-raising tool, allowing young people to engage and start talking about s subject that is scary and taboo,” said Kimmy McAtee, a spokeswoman for Keep A Breast.

She also said the organization has other apparel and accessory options for anyone who doesn”t like the term “boobies.”

On the other hand, the Fresno Unified School District, also in central California, does allow students to wear the bracelets. (ANI)

The company boasts that their bras offer thrills without spills, and proved their supportive design at the Alton Towers Theme Park in Staffordshire.

A flurry of women took to the roller coaster in their bras and knickers to test the lingerie’s endurance and quality.

And they seemed to stand up to the harsh conditions, reports metro.co.uk. (ANI)

“A revolution similar to the French Revolution is knocking at the door of Pakistan and the MQM will lead that change,” The Daily Times quoted Hussain, as saying.

“All airports will be closed and these corrupt elements will be hanged publicly, so that no one would make an attempt to promote corruption in the country again,” he added.

The MQM chief further said that hunger and poverty have compelled the country’s citizens to bring such a revolution.

“The flood victims are without food and shelter and they are ready to bring such revolution because a similar situation was witnessed before the French Revolution and the people took to the streets to bring a positive change,” Hussain said.

Earlier, Hussain had said that his party would support steps similar to martial law against “corrupt politicians” to weed out the menace of corruption.

He had urged “patriotic generals to initiate martial law-like steps against feudal politicians and former generals who disgraced the army institution during the Soviet-Afghan war”.

“The MQM is ready to take any risk for steps taken against political stalwarts for eradicating corruption and benefiting the country. To nip the major evils of society, it is sometimes acceptable to support the minor ones,” Hussain had said.

He had further demanded the initiation of cases of mass murder against ‘influentials and landlords’ saying that they were blocking the country’s development.

“These influentials and landlords have always created hurdles for the poor and middle classes, restraining them from entering politics to serve their country,” Hussain said. (ANI)

Results of the model may benefit the ageing population in which the occurrence of bone fractures is expected to rise substantially in the near future.

In 5 to 10 percent of bone fracture cases, the healing process does not succeed in repairing the bone, which leads to the formation of delayed unions or even non-unions – fractures that fail to heal.

Using a combination of an animal model mimicking a clinical non-union situation and a mathematical model developed for studying normal fracture healing, researchers at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), University of Liège (Belgium), Edinburgh University (United Kingdom) and Oxford University (United Kingdom) investigated this health problem.

For example, the authors investigated the potential to treat non-unions by transplanting cells from the bone marrow to the fracture site.

This was also tested in a pilot animal experiment; both the simulations and the experiments showed the formation of a bony union between the fractured bone ends.

In addition, the researchers used the mathematical model to explain some unexpected experimental observations.

The study demonstrates the added value of using a combination of mathematical modelling and experimental research, as well the potential of using cell transplantation for the treatment of non-unions.

The study has been published in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology. (ANI)

In the study, Elizabeth Seng and Dr. Kenneth Holroyd from Ohio University in the US compared the effects of various treatment combinations for severe migraine – drug therapy with or without behavioral management.

And they showed that those patients receiving the behavioural management program alongside drug therapy are significantly more confident in their ability to use behavioural skills to effectively self-manage migraines.

And surprisingly, the increase in confidence in self-management abilities is greatest among those who feel that they have very little control over their condition before treatment starts.

The researchers analyzed data for 176 participants in the US Treatment of Severe Migraine Trial.

Treatment programs included acute drug therapy for all, with either ß-blockers or placebo – each with or without behavioral migraine management.

The behavioural migraine management program consisted of demonstrations of migraine management skills during four monthly clinic visits, which were then applied between sessions by participants through workbooks, audiotape lessons, and guided home practice.

Their analyses showed that the addition of behavioral migraine management to drug therapy dramatically increased participants’ confidence in their ability to effectively self-manage migraine, compared to migraine drug therapy alone. Behavioral management also increased participants’ belief that migraines can be influenced by one’s own behaviour and decreased the belief that migraines are primarily influenced by chance or fate.

“Our exploratory analyses offer an optimistic message: brief psychological interventions for migraine management can effectively increase sufferers’ confidence in self-management and can be long-lasting,” concluded the authors.

Psychological interventions enhanced drug therapy, enabling participants to take a more active role in their treatment by using behavioral skills to manage migraines.

The findings are published online in Springer’s journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine. (ANI)

The comedian is writing the script based around the girl group”’’s songs.

The show, provisionally titled Viva Forever, is the brainchild of Judy Craymer.

Judy has teamed up with the Spice Girls”” original manager Simon Fuller to create a musical that will “harness the distinct personality of the Spice Girls”, reports the Sun. Presumably that means the cast will be loud, brash and not wearing much. It”’’s great to hear Jennifer is working again.(ANI)

Their sex sessions last an average 7.3 minutes, according to researchers from Erciyes University in Turkey, reports the Daily Express.

The reason is that they are much less likely to suffer from premature ejaculation.

Meanwhile, the slim lovers who are likely to leave women less than satisfied in bed with average of just 1.8 minutes.

The lardy lovers’ secret lies in their spare tyre and the other rolls of fat, which affect the balance of their hormones.

Being obese means they have higher levels of the female sex hormone oestradiol, a form of oestrogen.

The researchers believe this may disrupt the balance of neurotransmitter chem­icals in the brain that control ejaculation.

In contrast, men afflicted by premature ejaculation have lower levels of the hormone.

The research team found fat can be fun when they spent a year recording the body mass index of more than 100 men with premature ejaculation problems. They compared the results with men who did not have PE.

The findings showed men with the condition had much lower BMI scores on average than their chubby pals.

The study has been published in the International Journal of Impotence Research. (ANI)

Former batsman and PCB chief executive Arif Abassi said that it was the right decision, as the accused players were under stress.

“The players were not in the right state of mind and since they are under trial they should not play,” The News quoted Abbasi, as saying.

He also said that the investigation should be speeded up to give the team a quick resolution to the matter.

Former captain Asif Iqbal agreed with Abbasi, and said: “I don’t know whether this decision has been taken under pressure, but it’s true that the players would not have felt good about this investigation.”

However, former PCB chairman Tauqir Zia said that the board should have waited for the police inquiry to be completed.

Former spinner Tauseef Ahmed also supported the remark, and said that by not playing, the cricketers could be seen to be admitting their guilt.

“Allegations are allegations until they are proven. I feel that they should have waited for the inquiry to be completed,” Ahmed said.

The Pakistan team is in the midst of a betting scam, where fast bowlers Amir and Asif are alleged to have bowled pre-arranged no-balls in the Lord’’s Test, which England won by an innings and 225 runs.

British tabloid The News of the World has claimed that the cricketers were part of a 150,000-pound betting scam with Butt and London-based agent Mazhar Majeed. (ANI)

The project, named Solar Probe Plus, is scheduled to launch no later than 2018.

The small car-sized spacecraft will plunge directly into the Sun’s atmosphere approximately four million miles from our star’s surface.

It will explore a region no other spacecraft ever has encountered.

NASA has selected five science investigations that will unlock the Sun’s biggest mysteries.

“The experiments selected for Solar Probe Plus are specifically designed to solve two key questions of solar physics — why is the Sun’s outer atmosphere so much hotter than the Sun’s visible surface and what propels the solar wind that affects Earth and our solar system?” said Dick Fisher, director of NASA’s Heliophysics Division in Washington.

“We’ve been struggling with these questions for decades and this mission should finally provide those answers.”

As the spacecraft approaches the Sun, its revolutionary carbon-composite heat shield must withstand temperatures exceeding 2550 degrees Fahrenheit and blasts of intense radiation.

The spacecraft will have an up close and personal view of the Sun enabling scientists to better understand, characterize and forecast the radiation environment for future space explorers. (ANI)

The 27-year-old Durham bowler, who was one of Wisden’’s cricketers of the year in 2009, has been plagued by a stress fracture and faces surgery next week, The Sun reports.

“Obviously I”m shattered to miss the Ashes with the prospect of a lengthy recovery period. I”m devastated with such a long lay-off, but determined to overcome this,” Onions was quoted, as saying.

Onions made a superb start to his Test career in 2009, taking five wickets on his debut against the West Indies at Lord’’s.
He also played significant roles both with the ball and as an obdurate tailender in last summer’’s Ashes series win, then again in the drawn series in South Africa the following winter.

But Onions suffered a back injury on the tour of Bangladesh and has been beset by problems since.

Onions, who turns 28 this month, said: “It’’s been a difficult period for me, but I realize that I have to have this operation if I want to play cricket again. I”m going to make sure I get back bowling again next year and work my way back into England calculations.” (ANI)

“I”ve been speaking to Andrew Strauss to gauge the feelings of the players. Their belief was that it would be better for cricket if they were not in Pakistan’’s team – otherwise it could have turned into a sideshow. The England players wouldn”t have felt comfortable because the focus would have been on the Pakistanis – whether they are guilty or not. Andrew and his players will be very happy with this outcome,” The Sun quoted Porter, as saying.

While the three Pakistani cricketers insist they will fight the charges, ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat revealed that officers were in a position to charge the players only by 8 p.m. Thursday.

He added: “We will not tolerate corruption in cricket – simple as that. We must be decisive with such matters and, if proven, these offences carry serious penalties up to a life ban. The ICC will do everything possible to keep such conduct out of the game and we will stop at nothing to protect the sport’’s integrity. While we believe the problem is not widespread, we must always be vigilant.”

The trio is immediately barred from taking part in any cricket or related activities until the case has been concluded. They have 14 days in which to request a full hearing to contest the charge.

The ECB adopted a hard line on the trio under suspicion and they have the moral high ground because England hosted Pakistan’’s series against Australia this year.

English chiefs had tentative discussions about inviting a replacement team if Pakistan pulled out and Glamorgan were told only on Wednesday that the T20 matches in Cardiff would definitely take place.

Aussie legend Shane Warne has called for severe action on match-fixers and said: “They should be banned for life.” (ANI)

According to the Daily Times, the ongoing financial assistance of 100 dollars per family will continue for the next six months.

The government will also provide seeds and fertilizers to the farmers at the onset of the Rabbi season, the newspaper reported.

The government has also proposed to provide 50,000 rupees to each family for house-reconstruction. The aim is to complete the reconstruction phase before winter.

In a major decision, the government will divert all budgetary resources for rehabilitation purposes. The infrastructure is also set to be reconstructed.

According to UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Pakistan has received 291 million dollars in aid from the international community. (ANI)

“The unemployed youth in the country are in the grip of terrorism, communalism and this is primarily because of consequences of the economic policies of successive governments led by the Congress party for more than last 50 years,” said AIYF Secretary Murugan.

“The policies of the subsequent Congress governments have led to communal hatred, rise in terrorism (militancy), rise in Maoism and all these have attracted youth. This rally is organised to bring them back to mainstream,” he added.

Around 15,000 activists participated in the rally, which was also attended by veteran Communist leaders such as Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan and D Raja. (ANI)

Over 50 percent of those surveyed have opposed building of the project two blocks north of the World Trade Center site, even though a majority believe that developers have the right to do so. Thirty-five percent favour it.

The poll also found that a fifth of New Yorkers acknowledging animosity toward Muslims while 33 percent said that compared with other American citizens, Muslims were more sympathetic to terrorists.

And, nearly 60 percent said people they knew had negative feelings toward Muslims because of 9/11.

The poll result shows that the debate over the proposed religious center is the talk of the city. 66 percent said they had heard or read a lot about it, and follow-up interviews with respondents showed that the topic was leading to emotional and searching conversations in living rooms and workplaces.

“My granddaughter and I were having this conversation and she said stopping them from building is going against the freedom of religion guaranteed by our Constitution. I absolutely agree with her except in this case. I think everything in this world is not black and white, there is always a gray area and the gray area right now is sensitivity to those affected by 9/11, the survivors of the people lost,” the New York Times quoted, Marilyn Fisher a resident of the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, as saying.

Richard Merton said: “Freedom of religion is one of the guarantees we give in this country, so they are free to worship where they chose. I just think it’s very bad manners on their part to be so insensitive as to put a mosque in that area.”

The poll was conducted between August 27 to 31 with 892 adults. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points. (ANI)

Kumar is also trying to personally contact opposition leaders to take them into confidence on the kidnapping issue.

Meanwhile, a self-proclaimed spokesman of the Maoists, Avinash, telephoned media offices in Bihar and showed his readiness to hold talks with the State Government.

Saturday’s propsed meeting will take place a day after. The Maoists killed a Bihar Police sub-inspector Lucas Tete in the Lakhisarai District of the State.

The Maoists still have three policemen in their custody. (ANI)

In the book, ‘The Grand Design’, published next week, Hawking concludes that science excludes the possibility of a deity and that it is unnecessary to “invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going”.

However, his finding was described by Sacks as an “elementary fallacy” of logic.

“There is a difference between science and religion. Science is about explanation. Religion is about interpretation. The Bible simply isn”t interested in how the universe came into being,” the Guardian quoted the chief rabbi as writing in the Times.

Sacks also said the mutual hostility between religion and science was one of “the curses of our age” and warned it would be equally damaging to both.

“But there is more to wisdom than science. It cannot tell us why we are here or how we should live. Science masquerading as religion is as unseemly as religion masquerading as science,” he added.

In an earlier book, ‘A Brief History of Time’, Hawking was apparently more open to the idea of God, suggesting that a scientific understanding of the universe was not incompatible with a creator.

“If we discover a complete theory … it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the mind of God,” he wrote. (ANI)

The Earth is in the middle of its sixth mass extinction and Kasey-Dee Gardner finds out why they happen in the first place, and how we can save our planet.

The current mass extinction is being caused by a single species: humans.

“We”re 100 percent responsible for it. There is no precedent at all for what we”re doing,” he added. “All well-understood extinctions in the deep fossil record are tied to environmental changes that were not triggered by the behavior of individual species, such as the asteroid impact 65 million years ago that wiped out the terrestrial (non-avian) dinosaurs,” Discovery News quoted John Alroy, a researcher in the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University, as saying.

Alroy used the Paleobiology Database, which compiles data from nearly 100,000 fossil collections worldwide, to track the fate of major groups of animals during Earth’’s most massive extinction event 250 million years ago: the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event, also known as the “Great Dying.”

Alroy, focused on marine animals, since the fossil record includes many such species.

He determined that two of the most important and plentiful groups of marine animals 250 million years ago were corals and brachiopods, also called lamp shells.

After the Great Dying, corals were almost wiped out.

“There are almost no early Triassic coral fossils in the world,” explained Alroy, who added that corals “eventually recovered all of their lost diversity.”

The lamp shells, on the other hand, never recovered.

He said these are just a few examples from the past that demonstrate how a species-rich animal group may not necessarily fare well after a major extinction event.

Mammals with big body sizes, highly endemic tropical species, and certain plants may also die out before this latest extinction event concludes, said Charles Marshall, a professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California at Berkeley.

The findings are published in the latest issue of the journal Science. (ANI)

Our cerebral cortex, or pallium, is a big part of what makes us human: art, literature and science would not exist had this most fascinating part of our brain not emerged in some less intelligent ancestor in prehistoric times.

The findings give an idea of what the most ancient higher brain centres looked like, and what our distant ancestors used them for.

EMBL scientists have found brain structures related to the vertebrate pallium in a very distant cousin – the marine ragworm Platynereis dumerilii, a relative of the earthworm – which last shared an ancestor with us around 600 million years ago.

“Two stunning conclusions emerge from this finding. First, the pallium is much older than anyone would have assumed, probably as old as higher animals themselves. Second, we learn that it came out of ”the blue” – as an adaptation to early marine life in Precambrian oceans,” explained Detlev Arendt, who headed the study.

To uncover the evolutionary origins of our brain, EMBL scientist Raju Tomer, who designed and conducted the work, took an unprecedentedly deep look at the regions of Platynereis dumerilii’’s brain responsible for processing olfactory information – the mushroom-bodies.

He developed a new technique, called cellular profiling by image registration (PrImR), which is the first to enable scientists to investigate a large number of genes in a compact brain and determine which are turned on simultaneously.

This technique enabled Tomer to determine each cell’’s molecular fingerprint, defining cell types according to the genes they express, rather than just based on their shape and location as was done before.

“Comparing the molecular fingerprints of the developing ragworms” mushroom-bodies to existing information on the vertebrate pallium. It became clear that they are too similar to be of independent origin and must share a common evolutionary precursor,” said Arendt.

This ancestral structure was likely a group of densely packed cells, which received and processed information about smell and directly controlled locomotion.

It may have enabled our ancestors crawling over the sea floor to identify food sources, move towards them, and integrate previous experiences into some sort of learning.

“Most people thought that invertebrate mushroom-bodies and vertebrate pallium had arisen independently during the course of evolution, but we have proven this was most probably not the case,” said Tomer.

Arendt concludes: “The evolutionary history of our cerebral cortex has to be rewritten.”

The findings are published today in Cell. (ANI)

The device, which would include thousands of microscopic filters as well as a bioreactor to mimic the metabolic and water-balancing roles of a real kidney, is being developed in a collaborative effort by engineers, biologists and physicians nationwide, led by Dr. Shuvo Roy, in the UCSF Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences.

The treatment has been proven to work for the sickest patients using a room-sized external model developed by a team member in Michigan.

Roy’s goal is to apply silicon fabrication technology, along with specially engineered compartments for live kidney cells, to shrink that large-scale technology into a device the size of a coffee cup.

The device would then be implanted in the body without the need for immune suppressant medications, allowing the patient to live a more normal life.

“This device is designed to deliver most of the health benefits of a kidney transplant, while addressing the limited number of kidney donors each year,” said Roy.

“This could dramatically reduce the burden of renal failure for millions of people worldwide, while also reducing one of the largest costs in U.S. healthcare,” he added.

A model of the implantable bioartificial kidney shows the two-stage system—thousands of nanoscale filters remove toxins from the blood, while a BioCartridge of renal tubule cells mimics the metabolic and water-balance roles of the human kidney.

The team has established the feasibility of an implantable model in animal models and plans to be ready for clinical trials in five to seven years. (ANI)

Scientists at the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD), achieved the above feat in collaboration with researchers from the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF), the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and The Scripps Research Institute.

The findings demonstrate that the antimalarial candidate, spiroindolone NITD609, is effective against both strains of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium (P.) falciparum and P. vivax.

Through a novel mechanism NITD609 rapidly clears plasmodium in a malaria mouse model and shows pharmacological properties compatible with a once-daily dosing regimen.

“Malaria remains a scourge. The parasite has demonstrated a frustrating ability to outwit new medicines, from quinine to today’’s unsettling increased tolerance to artemisinin derivatives. We are delighted that our scientists could provide this potential new malaria therapy, based on an unprecedented chemical structure and directed to a novel target,” said Mark Fishman, president, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research.

Further regulatory pharmacological and safety evaluation is currently ongoing and, provided the outcome of these studies is favourable, the compound could progress to Phase I human trials.

In the stuyd the research team outlines how they identified a potential target by identifying mutations that decreased the parasite’’s sensitivity to this novel compound class.

“Using a novel Plasmodium whole-cell assay we were able to tap into the Novartis archive of 12,000 pure natural products and synthetic compounds to identify 275 compounds highly active against P. falciparum, the most prevalent and deadly form of malaria,” said Novartis Institute for Tropical Disease’’s Bryan Yeung, project team head.

“From this set all but 17 compounds were discarded for failing to meet pharmacological and efficacy standards. Of the remaining compound class, spirotetrahydro-beta-carbolines or spiroindolones have favorable physical and chemical properties for drug development as well as a mechanism of action distinct from the currently used therapies based on aminoquinolines and artemisinin derivatives,” he added.

The study is published in Science. (ANI)

And the finding is the only explanation for why a dying star is surrounded by a gigantic cloud of hot water vapour.

When astronomers discovered an unexpected cloud of water vapour around the old star IRC+10216 in 2001, they immediately began searching for the source. Stars like IRC+10216 are known as carbon stars and are thought not to make much water.

Initially they suspected the star’s heat must be evaporating comets or even dwarf planets to produce the water.

Now, Herschel’s PACS and SPIRE instruments have revealed that the secret ingredient is ultraviolet light, because the water is too hot to have come from the destruction of icy celestial bodies.

“This is a good example of how better instruments can change our picture completely,” said Leen Decin, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, the lead author of the paper about this work.

The superb sensitivity of Herschel’s instruments has revealed that the water around IRC+10216 varies in temperature from about –200 degrees centigrade to 800 degrees centigrade, which indicates that it is being formed much closer to the star than comets can stably exist.

Observations had already revealed the clumpy structure in the dusty envelope around IRC+10216.

The Herschel water detection made the astronomers realise that ultraviolet light from surrounding stars could reach deep into the envelope between the clumps and break up molecules such as carbon monoxide and silicon monoxide, releasing oxygen atoms.

The oxygen atoms then attach themselves to hydrogen molecules, forming water.

“This is the only mechanism that explains the full range of the water’s temperature,” said Decin.

The closer to the star the water is formed, the hotter it will be.

Decin and her colleagues now plan to extend the observations to other carbon stars.

“We are very hopeful that Herschel will find the same situations around those stars too,” she said. (ANI)

Previous studies have shown that living in areas that have more night-time illumination make men more susceptible to prostate cancer and women to breast cancer.

University of Haifa researchers” hypothesis was that LAN harms production of melatonin, a hormone that is released from the pineal gland during the dark part of the 24h cycle and which is linked to the body’’s cyclical night-day activity and seasonality.

In the current study, four groups of lab mice injected with cancerous cells were examined.

One group was exposed to “long days” of 16 hours of light and 8 hours of darkness, simulating exposure to artificial light beyond the natural number of light hours in a day.

A second group was exposed to the same “long days” but were treated with melatonin.

A third group was exposed to “short days” of 8 light hours and 16 dark hours and a fourth group was exposed to the same “short days” but during the dark hours was exposed to a half-hour interval of light.

The results showed that cancerous growths in mice exposed to “short days” were smallest (0.85 cubic cm. average), while those mice exposed to the interval of LAN during dark hours had larger growths (1.84 cubic cm. average) and those exposed to “long days” even larger growths (5.92 cubic cm. average).

The study also discovered that suppression of melatonin definitely influences development of the tumour.

The size of tumour in mice exposed to “long days” but treated with melatonin was only 0.62 cubic cm. on average, which is not much different from the size of the growth in mice exposed to “short days”.

The researchers said that their study results show that suppression of melatonin due to exposure to LAN is linked to the worrying rise in the number of cancer patients over the past few years.

“Exposure to LAN- disrupts our biological clock and affects the cyclical rhythm that has developed over hundreds of millions of evolutionary years that were devoid of LAN.

Light pollution as an environmental problem is gaining awareness around the world, and the World Health Organization’’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has already classified working the night shift as a higher grade of cancer risk,” the researchers noted. (ANI)

Sweden’’s top prosecutor reopened investigations into allegations of molestation from the woman and of rape by another Swedish female on Tuesday.

Assange said that he had consensual sex more than once with a woman who has accused him of molestation.

Assange has brushed away the accusations as a conspiracy and said the charges were a hindrance in his application for Swedish residency.

Wikileaks published more than 70,000 secret military files on Afghanistan in July.

Assange said he had been warned by Australian intelligence that he could face a campaign to discredit him after leaking the documents.

“It appears to be highly irregular and some kind of legal circus,” the Telegraph quoted Assange as saying.

“I say the same thing I have said the entire time. I have not done anything with these two women that was not completely voluntary from both parts.

“I know what I have done with my life therefore I know that these accusations are baseless and disturbing,” he added.

Assange has said that he was convinced he was facing a smear campaign.

“Who was behind this, we do not know. Whether that turns out to be a smear campaign done by a couple of people for personal motives or ideological motives, or whether that is larger and involves geopolitical concerns or whether it is a mixture of all those, we do not know,” he said. (ANI)

In the pic, he is riding a pony that appeared to have been stabbed in the flank by his spurs.

The horse was injured during a match at the Guards Polo Club in Windsor Great Park in July, but pictures of the incident have just emerged.

An onlooker has claimed that the 25-year-old prince continued to ride his horse even when blood was visible on its flank.

However, St James’s Palace has said he stopped playing as soon as the injury was spotted.

Animal welfare groups have accused Harry of being ‘heartless’.

The Hurlingham Polo Association, the sport’s governing body, has launched an investigation.

“It was a heartless and utterly selfish thing to do,” the Daily Mail quoted Andrew Tyler of animal welfare charity Animal Aid as saying.

‘Prince Harry comes from a background of hunting and shooting which is at odds with the vast majority of the British public,” he added.

Tony Moore of the Fight Against Animal Cruelty in Europe said: “Prince Harry is cruel. If a rider uses their spurs in a way that injures a horse then that is cruel.”

Moreover, a spokesman said: “Prince Harry was wearing regulation footwear (round-headed spurs) worn by many polo players.

“As soon as the cut was noticed, play was stopped and the horse was treated properly. The horse was absolutely fine and returned to the field immediately.

He added: “Prince Harry takes the welfare of his horses incredibly seriously and has been riding this horse for many years.

“He has nothing but the highest respect for the polo ponies and would never knowingly do anything to cause the animals distress,” he added. (ANI)

Hilditch further said that Haddin, who was not included in the 16-man squad for the two-Test tour of India, could even return for the three-match ODI series after the Tests.

“We don’t see any issues as far as the Ashes,” The Age quoted Hilditch, as saying.

Haddin missed July’s ODI series against England and the two Tests played against Pakistan that followed due to a tendon injury that made batting impossible for him.

The 32-year-old has worked hard to overcome the problem, and was helped by a recent treatment that resulted in having his blood drawn and the red blood cells and plasma separated.

A doctor injected the resultant concentration of platelets back into the affected area, and Haddin insists that he has felt relief ever since.

The first of the five Ashes Tests will be held at The Gabba in Brisbane from November 25 to 29.

It will be followed by Tests in Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney.

Two Twenty20 clashes and a seven-match one-day series have also been scheduled between Australia and England. (ANI)

According to The News, PCB officials and PHC diplomats have agreed to back captain Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, who have strongly denied all charges against them.

Sources said that senior PHC officials are confident that the three players can prove their innocence through the legal process.

The High Commission is also believed to be preparing a case against the News of The World, which carried out a sting operation to unearth the 150,000-pound betting scam.

Sources added that PCB’s legal advisor Taffazul Rizvi and Pakistan’s Additional Attorney General K.K. Agha are on board, but British lawyers are preparing the case.

“Hectic efforts are being made to prepare a defamation suit against the tabloid on behalf of the three Pakistani cricketers,” the newspaper quoted a source, as saying.

“The decision has been taken following a meeting between the players and Pakistan’s High Commissioner,” the source added.

Earlier, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UK, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, had said that the video evidence against the players may not be genuine.

“Were the videos timed, were they dated… do you have the answers to these questions?” Hasan had said.

When asked whether he thought that the players might have been set up, Hasan said: “Yes, I would say that.”

However, News of The World denied the charges and said: “The News of the World refuses to respond to such ludicrous allegations.” (ANI)

He then wants to put her plastinated on show.

The 93-year-old actress has been in and out of hospital for the past few weeks and is said to be in very ill health.

“My wife has always dreamt that her beauty would be immortal,” the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.

“I would like to show the plastinated body of Zsa Zsa Gabor in the context of a scene in one of her films.

He added that he would like German anatomist Gunther von Hagens to perform the procedure on his wife.

He made his decision after von Hagen”’’s exhibitions showed plastinated bodies with just muscles and tendons still intact.

The former beauty queen was renowned for her looks and glamour and was one of the original Hollywood socialites.

Frederic and Zsa Zsa celebrated their 24th wedding anniversary last month, this being Gabor”’’s ninth marriage. (ANI)

The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee made the remarks in an appearance on Sean Hannity’s WABC radio show.

In response to a question about an upcoming trip to Iowa on Septmber 17, Palin singled out a piece in CQ Politics which reported that Palin had asked for an opportunity to speak in the Hawkeye state, instead of being invited to speak.

“I did see a headline on CQ Politics and they’re way whack, saying that I asked for an opportunity to speak in Iowa… You idiot reporter! why can’t you follow up with a fact, like asking really? Who did she ask?… Certainly evidence of how whack reporters are today,” the New York Post quoted her as saying. (ANI)

Pierre Milza, an expert on fascist Italy, theorizes that the wartime prime minister may have wanted Mussolini dead to prevent the letters, in which Churchill expressed his admiration for his Italian counterpart before the outbreak of the Second World War, coming to light.

“There is no doubt, judging by his public declarations back in the 1920s and early 1930s, that Churchill was a fan of Mussolini. Roosevelt too,” the Telegraph quoted Milza as saying.

“Churchill even once said: ”Fascism has rendered a service to the entire world… If I were Italian, I am sure I would have been with you entirely’.

“But that was understandable in 1927, as then a fascist did not mean a friend of Hitler and accomplice to genocide. But when you are head of state and legitimate war hero of the British people, you don’t really want all that put up in lights.”

Officially, Italian Communist partisans near Dongo on Lake Como seized Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci, as they tried to flee to Switzerland in April 1945.

Despite disguising himself as a drunk German officer in a mixed Italian and SS convoy, he was spotted. Both he and Petacci were shot and their bodies subsequently trussed up upside in a square in Milan the following day.

Writing in his book, ‘The Last Days of Mussolini’, Milza says that this may explain why Churchill chose to holiday under a false name only a few miles from the spot Mussolini was seized. (ANI)

The famous cricketer commented on the rumors through his Twitter account after a picture of him at an event in Melbourne sparked a whirl of speculation.

“NO have not had facelift or any work done to face, training hard and lost 5kg. Yes have had teeth whitened,” the Daily Telegraph quoted him as tweeting.

“NO have not had hair transplant, have re-grown my own hair with laser therapy!! It works and happy with results!! (ANI)

The researchers analyzed factors related to transplant survival in 151 patients who had no apparent problems after living-donor kidney transplantation.

One-year biopsies showed no abnormalities in 57 percent of kidneys; another 30 percent had fibrosis (scarring) but no inflammation. In these two groups, the transplanted kidney continued to function normally from one to five years” follow-up.

However, in the remaining 13 percent of transplants, the biopsies showed fibrosis plus inflammation. These transplants had declining kidney function and a reduced long-term survival rate. Kidneys showing fibrosis plus inflammation also had increased numbers of immune cells as well as a “rejection-like” gene expression signature.

Thus, in apparently normal kidney transplants, biopsies showing fibrosis and inflammation signal kidney damage and an increased risk of long-term failure. “It is likely that the intragraft environment of patients with fibrosis and inflammation is damaging to the allograft,” says Stegall.

Without routine “protocol” biopsies, these warning signs would go undetected until clinical abnormalities developed, comments Mark D. Stegall, MD (Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN).

“The use of protocol biopsies allows for more detailed investigations of the intragraft environment,” he says.

“Such routine biopsies could provide a unique way to predict which kidney transplant recipients may be at increased risk for loss of kidney function, or to identify potential targets for early preventative treatment.”

The study appears in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). (ANI)

Kevin M. Beaver of The Florida State University sheds new light on the genetic components of academic performance during middle and high school, and on the interplay of specific genes and environmental factors such as peer behavior or school conditions.

“We believe that dopaminergic genes affect GPA because they have previously been linked to factors associated with academic performance, including adolescent delinquency, working memory, intelligence and cognitive abilities, and ADHD, among others,” Beaver said.

“So, the genetic effect would operate indirectly via these other correlates to GPA and school performance.”

He and his co-authors performed their groundbreaking analysis using DNA and lifestyle data from a representative group of 2,500 U.S. middle- and high-school students who were tracked from 1994 to 2008 in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

“We found that as the number of certain dopaminergic gene variants increased, grade point averages decreased, and the difference was statistically significant,” Beaver said.

Findings from the study has been published online Aug. 30 in the journal Intelligence. (ANI)

So in the past eight days, there were two cases when the ICRC had to halt the distribution of relief items “because of the unrest.”

“What we are detecting is a very worrying trend of areas where … people are so in need, so resentful of not getting enough aid, that they turn understandably aggressive and this is bad because it doesn”t help in our efforts to reach more of them,” the Dawn quoted Jacques de Maio, the head of operations for South Asia for the ICRC as saying.

”We are worried because if this trend extends, propagates,” it could hinder the aid effort, he added.

De Maio described the disaster as huge and added that the number of victims is swelling as the waters are flooding lower areas.

“The thing is that due to the sheer magnitude of this and the fact that we are not in for a sprint, we”re here for a marathon, we need to make sure that (such unrest) does not become the rule rather than the exception,” he said.

De Maio pointed out that an aggressive crowd could make the situation worse.

“If you organise a distribution for 30,000 and in the last 48 hours you have an additional 150,000, then you have a problem, particularly if you have people in the crowd, behind the crowd saying that ”anyway they”re useless, anyway they are politicised”,” he said.

”Our angle is that we want first to help this 30,000 and see how we can extend what we do,” said de Maio.

The ICRC expects to provide relief assistance to around 1.4 million with the next 45 days.

The floods in Pakistan have claimed the lives of over 1600 people. About eight million people are dependent on aid. Reportedly, many of them are going without food or water for days. (ANI)

Rahul said telecommunication services have played an important role in the development of the country and are successfully bridging the gap between the rich and the poor.

“I remember that my father, when he was alive, he used to get recommendations for phone line connections. Today, everyone has a cellphone. It has reached villages and this work was done by Rajiv Gandhi and Sam Pitroda. Because of this, the entire country has been connected through phone,” said Rahul Gandhi.

“Earlier, there used to be One India, – India comprising of the poor. Slowly, we have progressed and today, there are many in the country who have an opportunity. There are also some who do not have opportunity, and in the coming days, it will be our common task to make One India,” he added.

During the three-day visit, Rahul Gandhi will also meet party workers, Youth Congress activists and attend other programmes. (ANI)

Columns of angered ants will crawl up into elephant trunks to repel the hungry beasts from devouring tree cover throughout drought-plagued East African savannas. The inside of an elephant’’s trunk is tender and highly sensitive to thousands of biting ants swarming up into it, he said.

University of Florida researcher Todd Palmer said that in doing so, ants play a potentially important role in regulating carbon sequestration in these ecosystems.

“It really is a David and Goliath story, where these little ants are up against these huge herbivores, protecting trees and having a major impact on the ecosystems in which they live,” Palmer said.

“These ants play a central role in preventing animals that want to eat trees from doing extensive damage to those trees,” he added.

Palmer and his colleague Jacob Goheen noticed that elephants rarely ate a widespread tree species known as Acacia drepanolobium where guardian ants aggressively swarm anything that touches the trees. But they would feed on other trees that did not harbour these ants.

“We found the elephants like to eat the “ant plant” trees just as much as they like to eat their favourite tree species, and that when either tree species had ants on them, the elephants avoided those trees like a kid avoids broccoli,” he said.

Giraffes were yet another story – their long tongues would swipe away the ants before they could inflict any pain.

Now, the researchers are wondering if they may be able to save the green cover of the savannahs by simply spraying the trees with ant odours.

Ants” role in saving trees is critical with the interest in slowing the accumulation of greenhouse gasses since trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, Palmer said.

The paper is published this week in the journal Current Biology. (ANI)

Capsaicin, widely consumed worldwide in foods that contain chili peppers, is also used in topical creams for pain relief and its role in cancer development is controversial.

Capsaicin has been shown to induce apoptosis (cell death) in cancer cells. However, research findings have also shown that it can also act as a carcinogen, especially at the tumor promotion stage.

Ann Bode from University of Minnesota said that the possibility capsaicin induces inflammation and may affect cancer development is a critical result of the study.

“Most notably, the results raise concerns that a natural compound found in hot peppers used in over-the-counter topical pain remedies might increase skin cancer risk,” said Bode, who led the research team on this study along with colleagues Mun Kyung Hwang and Zigang Dong.

The study has been published in the cancer journal, “Cancer Research.” (ANI)

“The attacks on religious processions in Lahore and Karachi have once again highlighted the fact that besides posing a threat to the integrity and stability of the state the militants, operating under the umbrella of belief, will inevitably step up violence against the sects they disagree with,” the Daily Times quoted the HRCP in a statement.

Urging government to act against intolerant extremist organisations, the HRCP added, “As a rule, such attacks have been followed by an exclusive focus on the security aspect and not at all on the extremist organisations that orchestrate these attacks or the root causes of intolerance. One such organisation has claimed the responsibility of the attacks in Lahore. The government may have banned extremist groups in theory, but they retain their ability to strike at will.” (ANI)

Clarke is the chairman of the International Cricket Council’’s (ICC) Pakistan task force, which is charged with planning an ordered return of international cricket to the country.

According to the Guardian, Pakistan has not staged a home Test or one-day international since a terrorist attack on coaches carrying the Sri Lanka team and match officials to a Test in Lahore in March last year.

However, the ICC was at pains to point out last night that Clarke’’s remit was limited to security concerns, but the events of the past week have convinced him of the need for wider reforms.

Clarke said: “As chairman of the ICC’’s Pakistan task team, I look forward to working with Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, Ijaz Butt, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board and everybody involved in Pakistan cricket in taking forward cricket in Pakistan so that a proper plan exists for the whole of Pakistan cricket, given all the many and varied issues which have addressed it.”

“We naturally have many challenges to face, Cricket fans across the world can be assured that we will be doing so.” he added. (ANI)

“Gurmail Singh did not meekly hand over his property, his hard-earned money. When he resisted the robbers they used serious violence on him, grabbing the nearest weapon to hand, which happened to be bottles of wine he sold in the shop,” the Daily Mail quoted prosecutor Waterman, as saying.

“He was hit on the head. It was that which caused his death,” Waterman told the jury of nine woman and three men and added: “This was a robbery gone wrong.”

The alleged members of the gang, Umare Aslam, 20, Muawaz Khalid, also 20, 18-year-old Shoaib Khan, Nabeel Shafi, 18, and Rehman Afzal, 18, all from Huddersfield, have denied the murder charge.

Waterman told the jury how smokers outside a pub opposite the shop realised something was wrong when they saw two of the robbers – Afzal and Aslam – walk and then run from the scene.

One of them trapped the robbers inside by holding the door closed as they tried to smash their way out.

Two other members of the public tackled the pair when they eventually fled through the shop’’s back door, but both got away.

The court heard that one of the accused, Khan, had not been in the shop because there was no room for him in the taxi that had taken the rest of the gang to the scene.

But Waterman said: “It is the crown’’s case that each of these defendants was, at the very least, involved in a joint enterprise. They were in it together and each was responsible, criminally, for his death.”

Singh was allegedly attacked at about 8.30pm on February 20 and died the following day.

Sixty-three-year-old Gurmail Singh had come to England from India in 1963 and raised his family in Huddersfield. (ANI)

Oral bisphosphonates are a type of drug used to treat osteoporosis and other bone diseases and are the most commonly recommended treatment for such conditions.

Researchers from the University of Oxford’’s Cancer Epidemiology Unit and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency analysed data from the UK General Practice Research Database, which has anonymised patient records for around six million people registered with a NHS GP.

They focused on men and women aged over 40 years – 2,954 with oesophageal cancer, 2,018 with stomach cancer and 10,641 with colorectal (bowel) cancer diagnosed between 1995 and 2005. Each case was compared with five controls matched for age, sex, general practice and observation period.

They found that people with 10 or more prescriptions, or with prescriptions over about five years, had nearly double the risk of oesophageal cancer compared with people with no bisphosphonate prescriptions.

The study has been published on bmj.com. (ANI)

“I request the Shia community to cut short their programmes because they are soft target of terrorists,” Malik said, adding, “how can police provide security to a gathering of 15,000 people.”

“We have asked Shia Ulema to select specific places for taking out mourning processions and not to come in markets and streets,” the Dawn quoted him as saying further.

Malik said that shoot at sight order had been issued to settle the security concerns in Karachi. He also said the federal and provincial governments should work in tandem to fight terrorism and sectarianism.

When asked if he was scared of terrorists, Malik replied, “We do not fear terrorists. Rather, we are crushing them in Swat and tribal areas and this action will continue.”

Malik was speaking to reporters outside Parliament House. He accused the militants of trying to create a divide between Shia and Sunni communities, as well as the Barelvis and the Deobandis.

Shia scholar Allama Abbas Kumeli said the government should provide security to mourning processions, instead of stopping such gatherings. He accepted that these attacks were an attempt to divide the Shia and Sunni sects, but blamed security lapse for such incidents.

At least 37 people were killed, and 250 injured in Wednesday’s triple bombing on a religious procession in Lahore.

Pakistan has witnessed a dramatic rise in the incidents of suicide attacks in the country over the past three years since the storming of the Lal Masjid by security forces in mid-2007. (ANI)

The reality TV star says she’’s regretting all that plastic surgery.

“It’’s heartbreaking. I can”t live an everyday life. I can”t hug my dogs anymore. Especially with my face in the condition it’’s in, I can”t get up close or kiss them. I feel like a porcelain doll,” News.com.au quoted Montag as saying in an interview with Heat Magazine.

She’s also been complaining about her Size G breasts and finds herself vastly restricted due self-inflicted surgical woes.

Blair’’s memoirs, based on his time as the prime minister, have became Waterstone’’s fastest-selling memoirs ever and shot to the top of Amazon’’s best-seller list.

Although Waterstone’’s refused to disclose precise sales figures, a spokesman said the book had been a “stupendous” and “unprecedented” success.

“We”ve never seen a book like this sell so quickly in one day. It’’s selling in the sort of numbers you don”t see outside of mass market fiction with huge appeal – Dan Brown and JK Rowling are the competition here,” the BBC quoted spokesman as saying.

The memoirs include Mr Blair’’s accounts of the Iraq war, the 9/11 terrorist attacks in America and Princess Diana’’s death.

He also wrote about concerns over the amount he was drinking and of the rift he had with his successor Gordon Brown.(ANI)

Scion, a Crown research institute in Rotorua, has developed technology to turn organic materials and waste into compostable bioplastics such as spoons and knifes, called “spifes”.

“We do a ”reactive transformation” – that sounds pretty magical, doesn”t it? We”re checking whether we can get a patent,” The New Zealand Herald quoted Martin Markotsis as saying.

“If we say too much, we can”t patent it,” Markotsis added.

A pilot plant will be built by the beginning of next year, turning biosolid waste headed for landfill into industrial chemicals and energy-rich gases such as methane. Heat and gases released by the process will generate electricity to help power the plant.

More than 20 tonnes of sludge pouring into landfill every day will be diverted, saving up to 900,000 dollars a year in costs.

Another innovation at the research centre is the “biopeg”, tent pegs that can be left in the ground to eventually decompose into the soil. (ANI)

The fund contributions, which were initially slow, had increased after UN Secretary General Ban-Ki-moon visited Pakistan. But since last week, the aid has been ‘almost stalled’, rising from 274 million dollars to 291 million dollars which constitute about two thirds of funding needs.

“Given the number of those in need, this is a humanitarian operation of unprecedented scale,” the Daily Times quoted Manuel Bessler, the head of OCHA as saying.

“We need to reach at least eight million people, from the Karakoram Mountain Range in the north to the Arabian Sea in the south,” Bessler added.

The floods, triggered by torrential monsoon downpours last month, have claimed the lives of over 1,600 people and ruined 8.9 million acres of fertile land.

The floods first struck the western province of Baluchistan on July 22 before inundating the worst-hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and then entering Punjab and Sindh. (ANI)

The casino, which is likely to be launched in 2011, will be Warne’s latest addition to his rapidly increasing corporate empire, which will soon include his own Ashes show on Channel 9.

Talking about the latest development, the 40-year-old said that it was all about cashing in on his image.

“We’ve got two or three that we are looking at at the moment, there’s a business that I have with James Packer that we’ll be launching next year,” News.com.au quoted Warne, as saying.

“I’m not sure James would want me talking about that yet,” he added.

Warne currently has 16 corporate alliances, ranging from his “Advanced Hair, yeah yeah” deal to his link with Internet poker site 888.

He also has deals with Messages on Hold, luxury designer Dunhill, Channel 9, Sky Sports and Cricket Australia. (ANI)

Aldi Rizal hit headlines after a video where he was puffing a cigarette was revealed.

After the rehab stint, the toddler has managed to overcome the ill habit.

However, the treatment was not an easygoing job as little Aldi continuously retaliated by crying and hitting his head against the wall.

Aldi developed the habit of smoking cigarettes when he was just 11 months old as his father used to give him cigarettes to escape headache.

His parents from Sekayu, Indonesia approached for help because they were not able to afford his costly habit of 40 cigarettes a day.

“The money can now go on other things,” the Sun quoted Aldi’s mother Diana as saying. (ANI)

Two Pakistani men, aged 24 and 34, were arrested during a raid on the Malaysian National Day on suspicion of being involved in the racket.

CID chief Senior Assistant Commissioner Mohammedd Dzuraidi Ibrahim said the Indian victims, who were in their 20s and 30s, came from Uttar Pradesh four months ago.

“They were received by the two Pakistanis at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and were sent to work in a factory in Johor before they were moved to Sungai Siput. Investigations revealed the Indians were told to pay the Pakistani men RM300 each to be taken to Penang, where they were promised lucrative jobs,” The Star quoted, Ibrahim as saying.

“The house is a transit point before they are ferried out,” he added.

ACP Dzuraidi said the Pakistanis were remanded for a week and are being investigated under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act.

He added all the Indian nationals had been sent to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport immigration depot, where they would undergo investigations for 14 days before being sent back to their home country. (ANI)

A Canada High Commission release said the event will provide physicians, nurses and families of patients suffering from haemophilia with important information about the diagnosis and management of the disease and will help raise the profile of haemophilia within the Delhi medical community. The symposium will also serve as the foundation for further collaborative activities by the two partner institutes.

Dr Jayson Stoffman, Assistant Professor, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health
CancerCare Manitoba, who is participating in the symposium, said: “With the support of the World Federation of Haemophilia, the Paediatric Bleeding Disorders Program at Winnipeg, Canada is excited to be partnered with the Haemophilia Society (Delhi). Through this weekend’’s International Symposium on Haemophilia, we look forward to the opportunities to learn from each other as we work together to improve the care of persons with bleeding disorders in both countries.”

In 2009, the Paediatric Bleeding Disorders Program at the Health Sciences Centre, Winnipeg, Canada joined a twinning program with the Haemophilia Society (Delhi) and initiated a four-year partnership. Following an assessment visit, experts from the Canadian institute identified key areas of patient care, education and health care provider support where bilateral interaction could positively impact the lives of people with bleeding disorders in both Delhi and Winnipeg. The focus for 2010 was patient and caregiver education, which will conclude with the International Symposium on Haemophilia.

The twinning program is an initiative by the World Federation of Haemophilia (WFH) whereby established haemophilia treatment centres are paired with clinics in developing countries to share knowledge and expertise. (ANI)

“When I get married next month, one of the first things I”ll do is apply for dual citizenship,” the Sun quoted her as saying.

“I”m not too sure if I have to take a test as I”ve not had time to look into it. But England is like my second home,” she added.

Katy, who is in the UK promoting her second album ‘Teenage Dream’, tried to stay mum about her fiancé.

“I”m trying not to speak about Russell and am concentrating on my music. I”m trying to keep a hold on the celebrity thing. I”m a singer.

However, her attempt couldn’t last long.

She said: “There’’s a track on the new album called Firework, which is about him directly. It’’s my favourite.”

Out in London, wearing a T-shirt saying happy, Katy added: “I”m the happiest I”ve ever been, as you can see by my top.” (ANI)

The ex-lovers, who met when they co-starred in the movie ‘The Last Song’, confirmed their break-up just a little over a week ago.

However, a friend of Liam told Hollywood Life that the Australian heartthrob is already hoping for reconciliation.

“Although the relationship is over now, it doesn’t mean it is over forever,” the Daily Telegraph quoted the source as saying.

“There might be a chance of rekindling their romance in the future. They both are of the mind-set that if it’s meant to be, it will be.

“Liam was into the relationship a lot more then she was.

“He liked being exclusive. He was serious about her and wanted to make it work,” the source added. (ANI)

“Pulling out is not an admission of guilt, it’s a sensible move which allows their teammates to get on and play cricket whilst this mess is sorted out,” Cricistan.com quoted Ilyas, as saying.

“These allegations are yet to be proven and until they are all three players will be treated as innocent,” he added.

On the matter of replacements for the trio, Ilyas said that no replacements would be brought in for the two Twenty20 matches against England.

Confirming his remarks, Pakistan’s assistant manager, Shafqat Rana, said: “We won’t be bringing in any replacements for Butt, Asif and Aamer till the ODI series.”

“The teams for both T20’s to be played in Cardiff will be picked from the existing squad,” he added.

Pakistan is scheduled to play the first Twenty20 match in Cardiff on Sunday. (ANI)