Australia : A team of scientists says it has found a new species of dolphin swimming off the northern coast of Australia.
The dolphin, a member of the humpback family, isn’t exactly new to science – researchers have known about the population for years – but it is newly described by science. In fact, it is so new it doesn’t have a name.
Humpback dolphins are wide-ranging but have not been well studied. They have a tell-tale bump in front of their dorsal fin and prefer coastal waters like estuaries and deltas. They can grow to 8 feet, and their color ranges from dark gray to pink or even white. Scientists believe they eat mullet and other fish.
For more than a decade, a debate has raged about how many species of humpback dolphins exist. Some scientists said two – the Atlantic humpback and the Indo-Pacific humpback. Others thought the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin was actually two separate species.
Recently, Dr. Martin Mendez, assistant director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Latin America and Carribbean Program, and Howard Rosenbaum, director of the society’s Ocean Giants Program, decided to see whether they could shed new light on the question. Together they collected hundreds of samples of humpback dolphins to compare genetic and morphological characteristics among geographic populations.
In a study published in the Journal of Molecular Ecology, the team said it analyzed 180 dolphin skulls and looked at 245 tissue samples, mostly from beached humpback dolphins and museum specimens. The results surprised even them.
Running for a bus, darting across a busy street or dashing to get the last train, most busy women find themselves in need of a little turn of speed every now and then.
But according to a study, even short bursts of activity could make women wearing high heels prone to arthritis – causing misery for millions in later life.
Researchers claim high heel wearers who find themselves regularly having to run are putting themselves ‘at risk of long-term damage’.
Nine out of 10 women who regularly wear high heels report soreness, fatigue, numbness and bunions.
Despite this, wearing high-heels continues to be a fashion statement, said the researchers from Ningbo University, in Zhejiang, China.
They measured hip and ankle movements in young women wearing different types of footwear – flat shoes with a half-inch (1.5cm) heel, shoes with low heels of 1.75 inches (4.5cm) and high heels of 2.75 inches (7cm).
The team discovered that women running in high heels suffered a range of knee and hip strains which could lead to long-term damage.
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian will take her fiance Kanye West’s name and make Kardashian her middle name once they tie the knot.
The 33-year-old reality star made the revelation on the red carpet of her birthday party at Tao in Las Vegas last week, reported Aceshowbiz.
The ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’ star also talked about her surprise engagement which took place at San Francisco’s AT&T Park on her birthday.
“I cried afterwards. I was shaking. And when you’re like, ‘Is this really happening?’ But you’re just shaking… I honestly had no idea, none whatsoever. I knew we were going to San Francisco for my birthday, because he had a show there the next night. So I thought it was just a birthday dinner.
“My eyes were closed and then I got up and still the whole time I didn’t think it was a proposal. I thought it was dinner on the baseball field and we had a nice orchestra. I still didn’t get it… when he got on his knee, I kind of figured out what was going on,” the mother of one, who admitted that she left the wedding plan to West, added.
ISLAMABAD: India has handed over Pakistan a crucial documents running into 600 pages to be produced as evidence against seven 26/11 attacks accused.
A Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court is conducting trial against Lakhvi and six of his associates who face charges over the Mumbai terror attacks which killed 165 people including 26 foreigners.
Sources said two other documents were related to the proceedings of the seven-member Pakistan judicial commission which visited Mumbai in September to cross-examine witnesses including the magistrate who had recorded Ajmal Amir Kasab’s confessional statement, and a senior Pakistani public prosecutor’s application for the articles recovered from the terrorists who were also killed in the attacks.
Sources said that the Foreign Office would hand over the aforesaid record to the FIA which would submit it in the Anti Terrorism Court before November 6.
WASINGTON: US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee member Congressman Alan Grayson has said that drone strikes in Pakistan could end tomorrow if the country wanted to and that no such attacks take place without the approval of Pakistan.
The Democrat Congressman from Florida also said that he received no evidence from the Obama administration to suggest that there would be a drop in drone strikes conducted in Pakistan by the end of this year.
He said that had Pakistan wanted, drone attacks on its territory could end tomorrow if the country stopped facilitating the US strikes.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, during his recent trip to the US, had talked to President Obama on the drone issue after which the government had announced that the results of the talks would be visible shortly and that the nation would see its positive effects in the coming days as the number of drone strikes would significantly be reduced by the end of this year.
Pakistan has a strong Air Force which had the power to impose a restriction on its borders whenever it chose to, according to the Congressman who added that, such attacks were not possible without the consent of the country struck.
Grayson further said that it was possible that a similar situation developed in Pakistan and only then there would be an end to drone attacks.
Moreover, he said Pakistan's armed forces were capable of tackling militants and that in such a situation the US should not have blood on its hands. He added that there were only a handful militants in the country, whose numbers hardly run into hundreds, whereas the strength of Pakistan's military was more than a million.
DADU: Several towns of the province of Sindh went on a strike on the call of Jeay Sindh Mutahida Mahaz (JSMM) and other nationalist parties, while four more cracker attacks this morning rocked Dadu, fortunately, causing no loss of life on Wednesday here, Geo News reported.
JSMM and other nationalist parties have given this call for strike in protest against the unwarranted arrest and murder of their activists and in support of their other demands.
Sources said that a shutter down wheel jam strike is being observed in Dadu, Khairpur, Jamshoro, Mehar, Tando Mohammad Khan and some other small towns of Sindh interior, while the life in Sukkur reported to be normal.
Sindh University and Liaquat Medical University have postponed their scheduled examinations today in view of the precarious situation emanating from yesterday's scores of serial cracker blasts in several towns of Sindh interior including Hyderabad and Karachi. Sindh University spokesman said that the B.A, B. Sc., B.Com and M.A papers scheduled today have been postponed.
On the other hand, some unknown persons this morning hurled four crackers at Dadu new bus stop, new chowk and Qasai Mohalla in Mehar to terrorize the people and forcing them to remain confined in their houses. Yesterday also as many as 33 serial cracker blasts had occurred in Karachi, Hyderabad, Kotri, Nawabshah, Larkana, Dadu, Nausheroferoze, and Khaipur that killed one person and two injured in Hyderabad, while three vehicles were torched in Kotri.
NEW YORK: If consumer electronics companies are to be believed, someone on your holiday shopping list is just dying for a wristwatch that displays message alerts and weather updates.
Samsung and Sony have devices out for the holidays. Qualcomm has one coming. Apple is believed to be making one, and a new report says Google is developing one, too.
Why the big push for computerized watches? It's not coming from consumers, says Jonathan Gaw, a research manager at IDC. Rather, it's a product in search of a market _and an expensive one at that.
`We've had smartwatches for a while, and while the capabilities and technology have gotten better, this is still not something that people are clamoring for,'' Gaw says. ``The idea that it would ramp up for the holidays was always kind of a stretch.''
That hasn't stopped gadget makers from trying. Companies are under pressure to create a new source of buzz now that consumers are no longer wowed by the latest smartphones and tablet computers. Many people already have those devices, and the new ones out this year are evolutionary rather than revolutionary.
Gaw says many gadget makers see an opportunity to jump in with a smartwatch, before a behemoth like Apple is able get its rumored iWatch ready.
Last month, Samsung Electronics Co. started selling the $300 Galaxy Gear in the U.S. It works with selected Samsung smartphones to display email and text alerts. There's a camera on the strap for low-resolution photos and a speakerphone on the watch to make calls while leaving your phone in the pocket. You can install apps for additional functionality, such as tracking fitness activities and playing games, though there are only a handful of apps available for now.
RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil will produce a combined vaccine against measles and rubella exclusively for export to poor countries, mainly in Africa, its health minister said Monday.
Alexandre Padilha said the aim was to produce 30 million doses by 2017 for sale at a price of 54 US cents each. Currently such vaccines are made only in India.
Padilha made the announcement at an event in Rio where he announced that the government was inking an investment deal with the US Bill & Melinda Gates foundation to develop the vaccine.
He said his ministry would invest $727 million in construction of a state-of-the pharmaceutical plant at the Bio-Manguinhos Institute, a government institution located in Rio.
"This plant will generate employment, revenue, know-how, research and technological innovation in this country," he added.
"The agreement which we are signing provides more investments and buying guarantees, which makes it possible to export at the lowest cost," he said.
The Gates Foundation is meanwhile allocating $1.1 million for the project. Measles was eradicated in Brazil in 2000 and rubella (or German measles) in 2009. But the diseases remain endemic in some countries.
In 2011, 158,000 people died of measles around the world, most of them in poor countries, according to data from the World Health Organization.
Meanwhile Carlos Gadelha, the health ministry's science and technology secretary said Latin America's dominant economic power also hopes to make headway toward developing the pentavalent vaccine and a vaccine against dengue fever.
The pentavalent vaccine simultaneously provides protection against five life threatening diseases - Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Hepatitis B and Hib (Haemophilus influenza type b).
WASHINGTON: Ever wonder why snakes inspire such fear? A new study on monkeys out Monday says the brain has specific cells that fire off rapid warnings when confronted with slithery danger.
Certain neurons respond "selectively" to images of snakes, and they outpace comparable neurons that react to visuals of faces, hands or geometric shapes, the researchers said.
The report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offers new evidence to support the notion that primates evolved keen vision skills so they could survive the threats snakes pose in the jungle.
"It really strengthens the argument that snakes are very important for the evolution of primates," lead co-author Lynne Isbell, a professor in the anthropology department at the University of California Davis, told AFP.
"Snakes elicited the strongest, fastest responses," said the study, co-authored by Quan Van Le of the University of Toyama and researchers at the University of Brasilia.
The research was done using two young macaque monkeys that were born on a national monkey farm in Japan.
SEOUL: LG Electronics unveiled Monday a curved-screen smartphone, taking on rival Samsung in a niche market seen as a first step on the road to fully flexible products.
Despite its name, the "G-Flex" does not bend, but uses flexible OLED (organic light-emitting diode) to produce a curved six-inch display.
The model is "the best representation yet of how a smartphone should be curved," the president of LG's mobile unit Park Jong-Seok said, in a clear dig at Samsung.
Earlier this month, Samsung started retailing its "Galaxy Round" -- a 5.7-inch (14.5 centimetre) handset with a display that curves from side-to-side to fit the contour of the hand.
The "G-Flex" is curved on the vertical axis in order to, the company said, "follow the contour of the face".
Curved displays are already commercially available in large-screen televisions offered by both Samsung and LG. The displays are supposed to offer a more immersive viewing experience but are significantly more expensive than standard screens.
The Galaxy Round is currently only available in South Korea and retails at 1.08 million won ($1,000). Curved screens are still at a nascent stage in display technology, which is shifting towards flexible panels that are bendable or can even be rolled or folded.
LG said the G-Flex would be available to South Korean consumers from November, but did not provide a price estimate.
