Letters by Lawrence of Arabia discovered

London, Sept 19 (ANI): Fascinating letters written by Lawrence of Arabia have been found years after they were thought to have been burned on a fire.

In the letters, the hero of the Arab revolt in the First World War talks about his love of motorcycles, which led to his death in a road accident in 1935, reports The Telegraph.

Speaking about one of his machines, he wrote: “It’s a heavenly bike, goes like smoke and is as smooth as milk to ride.”

The correspondence – found when an envelope fell out of an old book – will be auctioned on October 1 in Dorchester, Dorset, and could fetch more than 10,000 pounds.

Dorset historian Rodney Legg, who has written numerous books on Lawrence, said: “It’s mysterious how Lawrence managed to balance his finances. He sometimes spent lavishly and at other times wrote letters to friends proclaiming poverty.

“So anything that throws light on the relationship with his banker is quite revealing.” (ANI)

Exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke linked to liver disease

Washington, September 11 (ANI): People can develop liver disease even when they are exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke, according to a study.

Scientists at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) have found that exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke can lead to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a common disease and rising cause of chronic liver injury wherein fat accumulates in the liver of people who drink little or no alcohol.

For their study, the researchers exposed some mice to second-hand cigarette smoke for a year in the lab, and observed fat build-up in their liver cells, a sign of NAFLD that eventually leads to liver dysfunction.

The researchers focused on two key regulators of lipid (fat) metabolism that are found in many human cells as well: SREBP (sterol regulatory element-binding protein) that stimulates synthesis of fatty acids in the liver, and AMPK (adenosine monophosphate kinase) that turns SREBP on and off.

They found that second-hand smoke exposure inhibits AMPK activity, which, in turn, causes an increase in activity of SREBP.

More active SREBP results in more fatty acids getting synthesized, they say.

The result is NAFLD induced by second-hand smoke, according to the researchers.

“Our study provides compelling experimental evidence in support of tobacco smoke exposure playing a major role in NAFLD development,” said Manuela Martins-Green, a professor of cell biology, who led the study.

“Our work points to SREBP and AMPK as new molecular targets for drug therapy that can reverse NAFLD development resulting from second-hand smoke. Drugs could now be developed that stimulate AMPK activity, and thereby inhibit SREBP, leading to reduced fatty acid production in the liver,” Martins-Green added.

A research article describing the study has been published in the Journal of Hepatology. (ANI)

Polish vodka, Cuban cigars and Uma Thurman for Warne’s 40th birthday

Melbourne, Sep 10 (ANI): Australian spin legend Shane Warne will celebrate his 40th birthday with 200 mates, a bottle of Polish vodka, a Cuban cigar – and possibly Hollywood actress Uma Thurman.

Warne turns 40 on Sunday.

Speculation mounted on Wednesday that the Hollywood superstar of Kill Bill fame will join the 200-strong invitation list including Sam Newman, Garry Lyon, Eddie McGuire, Jeff Fenech, poker ace Jo Hachem and a host of business leaders and media chiefs.

Ex-wife Simone Callahan will also be there in the latest sign their roller coaster romance is back on track.

Cricket legends Allan Border and Ian Chappell have been invited, but Steve Waugh and Adam Gilchrist are not on the list.

Best mate Aaron Hamill, who played for Warne’s beloved Saints, will lead the AFL contingent.

Warne has booked a ritzy Chapel St cocktail lounge for tomorrow night’s bumper bash. And the party is tipped to extend well into the early hours of Saturday morning thanks to a 7 a.m. liquor licence, the Daily Telegraph reports.

It is believed Warne’s only request to venue management was for a regular flow of his preferred drink of choice – “Belevedere vodka and Red Bull”-and somewhere to enjoy a celebratory smoke.

On offer are 1500 dollars bottles of French champagne and a range of pricey seafood and Asian dishes, but no baked beans or pizza. (ANI)

Jonathan Ross secures exclusive interview with Barbra Streisand

London, Sep 10 (ANI): American singer Barbra Streisand is to be interviewed by Brit film critic Jonathan Ross for an episode of his BBC One chat show.

An entire show, which has been branded as ‘Friday Night With Streisand and Ross’, will be dedicated to 67-year-old Streisand, reports the BBC.

The singer/actress will be discussing her career and also perform some of her classic hits and material from her new album, ‘Love Is The Answer’, on the programme which will be broadcast on October 2.

A spokeswoman for Streisand said the BBC One show would be the star’s first studio interview in the UK since she spoke with Des O’Connor in the 1980s.

Streisand’s new album is set for release in the UK on September 28.

It has a collection of jazz standards, which will show the singer performing tracks including ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes’ and ‘In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning’. (ANI)

Russell Crowe’s fitness regime involves smokes, fatty foods

Melbourne, Sept. 1 (ANI): Aussie actor Russell Crowe is said to follow a fitness regime that involves a few cigarettes and eating fatty foods.

Crowe, 45, who had this year lost 32kgs while preparing for his starring role in Robin Hood, has left many wondering about his trim waistline, and how he manages to keep it that way.

Upon being followed, Crowe was seen starting his day with a smoke before he and his personal trainer rode their bikes from Woolloomooloo to Darlinghurst, which is probably a 10-15 minute ride tops.

The actor then took a breather at Mad Mex on Crown St., where he decided to order an early lunch of three crispy tacos along with a soft drink, reports the Daily Telegraph.

He then had another cigarette before peddling home again. (ANI)

Warped debris disks around stars a result of interstellar wind

Washington, August 29 (ANI): In a new research, a team of scientists has determined that the warped shapes of the dust-filled disks where new planets may be forming around other stars, may be due to interstellar wind.

The dust-filled disks where new planets may be forming around other stars occasionally take on some difficult-to-understand shapes.

Now, a team led by John Debes at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, has found that a star’s motion through interstellar gas can account for many of them.

“The disks contain small comet- or asteroid-like bodies that may grow to form planets,” Debes said. “These small bodies often collide, which produces a lot of fine dust,” he added.

As the star moves through the galaxy, it encounters thin gas clouds that create a kind of interstellar wind.

“The small particles slam into the flow, slow down, and gradually bend from their original trajectories to follow it,” said Debes.

Far from being empty, the space between stars is filled with patchy clouds of low-density gas.

When a star encounters a relatively dense clump of this gas, the resulting flow produces a drag force on any orbiting dust particles.

The force only affects the smallest particles – those about one micrometer across, or about the size of particles in smoke.

“This fine dust is usually removed through collisions among the particles, radiation pressure from the star’s light and other forces,” explained Debes. “The drag from interstellar gas just takes them on a different journey than they otherwise would have had,” he said.

Working with Alycia Weinberger at the Carnegie Institution of Washington and Goddard astrophysicist Marc Kuchner, Debes was using the Hubble Space Telescope to investigate the composition of dust around the star HD 32297, which lies 340 light-years away in the constellation Orion.

He noticed that the interior of the dusty disk – a region comparable in size to our own solar system – was warped in a way that matched a previously known warp at larger distances.

“Other research indicated there were interstellar gas clouds in the vicinity. The pieces came together to make me think that gas drag was a good explanation for what was going on,” Debes said.

“It looks like interstellar gas helps young planetary systems shed dust much as a summer breeze helps dandelions scatter seeds,” Kuchner said.

As dust particles respond to the interstellar wind, a debris disk can morph into peculiar shapes determined by the details of its collision with the gas cloud. (ANI)

Smoking mums-to-be putting future generations at increased health risk

Washington, Aug 25 (ANI): Mums-to-be who smoke are not only putting their unborn child at increased health risk but future generations also, according to a new study.

Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) has found that the life-long effects of maternal smoking during pregnancy may occur through specific changes in DNA patterns.

They showed that children exposed in the womb to maternal smoking had differences in DNA methylation, an epigenetic mechanism in which small chemical compounds are added to DNA.

“This study provides some of the first evidence that in utero environmental exposures such as tobacco smoke may be associated with epigenetic changes,” said one of the lead authors Carrie Breton, Sc.D., assistant professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

“This could open up a new way for researchers to investigate biological mechanisms that might explain known health effects associated with maternal smoking,” she added.

Prenatal exposure to smoke is associated with a number of health problems, including childhood asthma, cardiovascular disease, and lower pulmonary function later in life.

“Moms should not be smoking during pregnancy,” said Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a component of the National Institutes of Health that helped fund the USC study.

“Maternal smoking during pregnancy is not only detrimental to the health of the mom and the newborn child, but research such as this suggests that it may impact the child into adulthood and possibly even future generations as well,” she added.

The study appears in the September issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. (ANI)

Regular marijuana use leaves men with sexual difficulties

London, Aug 25 (ANI): A new study from La Trobe University in Melbourne has found that men who regularly smoke pot are four times more likely to have trouble reaching orgasm.

During the study, lead researcher Marian Pitts analysed the data collected as part of a 2005 telephone survey of 16- to 64-year-olds.

It showed that overall, 8.7 per cent of respondents said they had gotten high in the last year, with twice as many men (11.2 per cent) admitting to marijuana use as women (6.1 per cent).

Although male smokers experienced sexual problems, they still had more partners than non-smokers, reports New Scientist.

The findings showed that marijuana users were twice as likely to have had two or more sex partners in the previous year than men who didn’t smoke pot.

Pitts’ team found an even stronger trend for increased sexual activity among female smokers, who were also seven times more likely to have been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection in the last year than non-smokers.

However, they had no more problems in the bedroom than abstainers.

The new study supports the results of the research led by Marie Eloi-Stiven at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York, which found that marijuana users were far more likely than others to take Viagra. (ANI)

Smoking may lead to brain damage in multiple sclerosis patients

Washington, Aug 18 (ANI): Cigarette smoking can cause brain damage in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a new study.

Scientists at the University at Buffalo have shown that MS patients who smoked for a little as six months during their lifetime had more destruction of brain tissue and more brain atrophy than the patients who never smoked.

“Cigarette smoking is one of the most compelling environmental risk factors linked to the development and worsening of MS,” said Dr Robert Zivadinov, UB professor of neurology, director of the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Centre (BNAC) where the research was conducted and first author on the study.

“The biological basis of the potential link between smoking and MS has not yet been fully elucidated.

“In addition to nicotine, cigarette smoke contains hundreds of potentially toxic components, including tar, carbon monoxide and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

“In MS patients, smoking was associated with higher increased lesion burden and greater brain atrophy. Our results indicate that a wide range of quantitative brain MRI markers are affected by smoking in MS patients,” he added.

The study involved 368 patients from the Baird Multiple Sclerosis Center of the Jacobs Neurological Institute (JNI), where 128 had a history of smoking: 96 were active smokers who had smoked more than 10 cigarettes-per-day in the three months prior to the study start and 32 were former smokers who had smoked cumulatively for at least six months sometime in the past.

The remaining 240 participants were lifelong nonsmokers.

They found that that smokers with MS had a greater breakdown of the blood-brain barrier.

They had nearly 17 percent more brain lesions – patches of inflammation in the sheath surrounding the nerve fibres that impair their function – than nonsmokers with MS, and also had less brain volume.

Smoking also was associated with increased physical disability.

“The findings underscore the detrimental effect of smoking, providing a link between smoking and a more severe brain injury in MS patients,” said Dr Bianca Weinstock-Guttman, director of the Baird MS Center, UB associate professor of neurology and a principal co-author on the study.

The study appears in Neurology(r), the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. (ANI)

Oz ‘Fanatics’ claim responsibility for fire prank on English team

Leeds (UK), Aug.9 (ANI): Australian cricket fans have claimed responsibility for a hotel fire alarm that roused the England team from their beds the morning of their batting collapse on the first day of the fourth Ashes Test at Headingley.

The Fanatics – Australian supporters who follow the Test team around the world – claim they set off the fire alarm at the Radisson Hotel in Leeds about 4.30 a.m. on Friday.

England’s Test team was evacuated with other guests and staff while two fire engines from West Yorkshire Fire Service searched the premises for the source of the alarm.

Players were left standing in the street in their pyjamas for more than 20 minutes until the all clear was given for them to return to their beds.

Warren Livingston, head of the Fanatics, told The Sunday Mail one of the 100-strong group had managed to set the alarm off with the intention of disrupting the English team’s sleep, saying it was “good old fashioned Aussie high jinks”.

“Yes it was one of our guys who did it as a bit of a prank. I got a text message after it happened. At first, I thought, ‘good onya’, we’re just doing our bit for Australia,” news.com.au quoted Livingston, as saying.

“But I can’t condone this sort of thing. I don’t want any trouble. We’ve all had a big laugh and it might have made a difference to the way they batted,” he added.

If the claim is found to be true, English cricket fans and authorities will not view the situation with any humor.

Earlier, British media reports said the alarm may have been set off by a guest who had rinsed her underwear in a bathroom sink and then left it close to a light bulb to dry.

When the underwear started to smoulder, the woman was reported to have thrown it back in the sink, but not before the room had filled with smoke and the fire alarm went off.

England’s wicket-keeper Matt Prior blamed the incident for his team’s batting collapse in the first innings of the Test. (ANI)

History’s worst inventions revealed

London, July 14 (ANI): Exploding dogs, flying cars, and parachute suits are some of history’s worst inventions, according to a new book.

Authored by Eric Chaline, ‘History’s Worst Inventions’ describes some of the funniest and freakiest ideas that have gone awry.

Published by New Holland Publishers, the tome is priced at 10.99 pounds, reports the Sun.

Some of history’s worst inventions are:

Anti-tank dogs (1939-1945)

During World War Two the Russians faced the mechanical might of the German Army’s tanks, which made Soviet engineers to create canine mines or “anti-tank dogs”. The dogs, fitted with explosives, would be starved before battles and trained to search for food under vehicles, where they would explode.

But the biggest problem was the dogs often ran towards their own lines, blowing up tanks on their own side.

The Parachute Jacket (1912)

The “flying tailor” Franz Reichelt jumped from the Eiffel Tower to demonstrate his parachute overcoat. Huge crowds gathered to watch the magical event.

Sadly things didn’t go to plan, and he fell to his death.

The Flying Car (1930s)

Waldo Waterman created two Chitty Chitty Bang Bang-style flying cars between 1930-40. The American inventor’s 20ft-long Aerobile had a top air speed of 112mph and he flew it from California to Ohio.

It was never put into commercial production because of technical problems and flight regulations.

Wicker Chair Spaceship (1500)

A Chinese official named Wan Hoo dreamed up the idea of flying to the moon using 47 large rockets strapped to his wicker chair. For his first flight, he instructed his servants to light the rocket fuses ready for blast off. There was a huge explosion but when the smoke cleared Wan had disappeared.

Mythical tales told of him living in space but recent reconstructions show he was probably blown to bits.

Animal testes as cure for erectile dysfunction (19th Century)

Before testosterone was discovered, Mauritian-born Dr Charles-Edouard Brown-Sequard (1817-94) injected himself with his preparation made from the testes of guinea pigs and dogs.

He believed it would stave off old age and improve his potency, but his tests flopped.

The TWIKE (mid-1980s)

Short for two in a bike, the pedal-powered three-wheeler TWIKE looked like a kids’ toy. An updated Nineties version had an AC motor and could hit 53mph.

Despite sounding like a good idea, the Swiss firm behind the machine are said to have sold just 2,000 of their machines.

Betamax (1975)

Sony lost billions of pounds with their failed Betamax video format in 1975. It was blown out of business by the release of VHS a year later.

Sony’s 100 per cent share of the VCR market in 1975 shrunk to just 25 per cent by 1981 as a result. (ANI)

Michael Gambon had special pocket sewn into his Harry Potter costume for ciggies

London, July 12 (ANI): Actor Michael Gambon has revealed that he had a special pocket sewn into his Harry Potter costume so that he could carry his cigarettes while shooting for the film.

The actor, who plays the role of Albus Dumbledore, was so tired of having to dash off the set for a quick smoke in between takes that he got a special pocket to carry cigarettes.

“I got the wardrobe to put a little pocket inside for them,” the Daily Star quoted him as saying.

Director David Yates also admitted: “Michael cleverly conceals a packet of fags below the lower part of the gown.”

Gambon said that he would miss wearing the costume once the wizard series ends.

He added: “It is made of silk, its very fine and so easy to wear. I will miss that.”

Michael was given to play the role after Richard Harris’ death who earlier performed the part. (ANI)

Coca-Cola delivery fleet goes green in Delhi

New Delhi, July 9 (IANS) The 85 Coca-Cola trucks in the city that deliver soft-drink bottles to your neighbourhood store will not belch black smoke any more. Their engines have been changed to use CNG, with the first three trucks of the new “green fleet” flagged off by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit here Wednesday evening.
On the occasion, Dikshit called upon all residents of the capital to use eco-friendly alternatives wherever and whenever they could in their daily lives, and lauded Coca-Cola for having changed its fleet over to the eco-friendly compressed natural gas (CNG) fuel.

“This takes forward the Delhi government’s efforts to encourage a transport system that is clean, effective and benefits the environment,” she said.

President and CEO of Coca-Cola India Atul Singh said businesses, the government and civil society had to come together at all levels to solve environmental problems and move towards a cleaner future.

“At Coca-Cola India, we have joined hands with the government, NGOs and local community to work on the issues of fresh water and climate protection. A lot of the good work on water and the environment has been done under the ‘Bhagidari’ (partnership) platform of the Delhi government.”

Ahmet Bozer, president of the Eurasia and Africa group of Coca-Cola, who was present at the flagging-off ceremony, lauded the Delhi government for taking a number of green initiatives, including the recent ban on plastic bags.

A company spokesperson said Coca-Cola India is also working on the goal of achieving a “net zero” balance with respect to groundwater usage by the end of the year. “By being a ‘net zero’ user of groundwater, the Coca-Cola system in India will create a rainwater harvesting potential equivalent to the groundwater used for its operations in India.”

The company has already installed over 400 rainwater harvesting structures in the country and has constructed and revived several ponds, check dams and wells around India in partnership with NGOs, government agencies and local communities.

Gujarat offers special prayers for rain

Ahmedabad, July 6 (ANI): Seeking an end to the continuing dry spell, Hindu priests on Sunday offered special prayers and fire ritual to appease the rain God in Ahmedabad.

Hindu seers performed ‘Parjanya Yagya,’ a special fire ritual for rain, as Gujarat faces an acute water shortage due to an uncertain monsoon.

In this special ritual, priests offer eight herbal and holy ingredients to the holy fire.”The smoke which erupted from this fire ritual goes up into the atmosphere and touches the clouds which cause rain…and the rainfall in turn benefits humans and other species on the earth at large,” said Sameer Shastri, a priest.

Rainfall during June 1 to July 1 was 92.2 mm, 46 percent below normal.

The weather office had said that total rainfall for the crucial June-September monsoon would be only 93 percent of the long-term average, coming in below normal for the first time in four years. (ANI)

Megan Fox still has a lot of growing to do, says ‘Transformers’ director

Washington, July 03(ANI): ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ director Michael Bay has slammed Megan Fox, calling her “ridiculous” for speaking against the movie.

Fox told Entertainment Weekly: “I mean, I can’t s**t on this movie because it did give me a career and open all these doors for me. But I don’t want to blow smoke up people’s a**. People are well aware that this is not a movie about acting.”

However, the helmer begs to disagree and instead feels that Fox still “has growing to do”.

“Well, that’s Megan Fox for you. She says some very ridiculous things because she’s 23 years old and she still has a lot of growing to do,” Contactmusic quoted him as saying.

Bay is also not ready to keep secret the fact that he has helped many other stars like Fox in Hollywood turn big through his films.

He added: “Nic Cage wasn’t a big actor when I cast him, nor was Ben Affleck before I put him in Armageddon. Shia LaBeouf wasn’t a big movie star before he did Transformers – and then he exploded. Not to mention Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, from Bad Boys.

“Nobody in the world knew about Megan Fox until I found her and put her in Transformers. I like to think that I’ve had some luck in building actors’ careers with my films.” (ANI)

Cyclists transform into mobile pollution sensors

London, June 30 (ANI): Pedestrians and cyclists in urban areas of the UK are being transformed into mobile pollution sensors, as part of a Government-backed scheme to monitor air quality.

According to a report by Sky News, researchers, led by a team at Imperial College London, will trial three new types of sensors on people, vehicles and traffic islands to measure traffic emissions and noise pollution.

The three-year Environmental Sensing System Across Grid Environments (MESSAGE) initiative will receive data from 100 sensors in South Kensington, Leicester, Gateshead and Cambridge to test how they operate in different types of location.

The new sensor technology will provide unprecedented detail about pollution hotspots.

“There is a lot that we do not know about air quality in our cities and towns because the current generation of large stationary sensors don’t provide enough information,” said professor John Polak.

“We envisage a future where hundreds and thousands of mobile sensors are deployed across the country, to improve the way we monitor, measure and manage pollution in our urban areas,” he added.

The sensors will measure up to five different traffic pollutants simultaneously, including harmful nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxides.

The sensors, which are attached to pedestrians and cyclists, are small enough to fit into a pocket and can detect car pollutants and other contaminants including carbon monoxide from cigarette smoke.

They will transmit the data back via the wearer’s mobile phone.

The scientists will also model pollution clouds in 3-D, by attaching sensors to traffic lights and street lamps to try to work out whether poor traffic signalling, for example, is causing air quality to deteriorate.

The air quality measurements and the location of each mobile sensor will be tracked on Google maps. (ANI)

Saina Nehwal makes a triumphant return home

Hyderabad, June 28 (ANI): After winning her first ever super series badminton title in Indonesia, Saina Nehwal arrived in Hyderabad, her home city on Saturday.

Ranked number eight in the world, Nehwal won her first super series event in Indonesia on June 21, raising India’s hopes of a strong performance at the World Championships to be staged here in August.

Nehwal who is the world junior champion beat China’s Lin Wang 12-21 21-18 21-9, having lost to world number three at the Singapore Super Series the previous week.

However, her dream of pocketing back-to-back titles went up in smoke as Chinese qualifier Xin Wang stunned the second-seeded Indian in the quarterfinals of the Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament at Johor Bahru on Friday (June 26).

“I don’t want to compare myself with players who have already won that. So I tried to compare with the Chinese but it is really great, fantastic. Now I think I will be able to win more super series event and I look forward to win some bigger events like All England Championship. (Q. What happened in Malaysia?) I was little bit tired because it was really tough tournament. I played all the top 20 players in the tournament from day one, it was really hectic,” said Nehwal.

Nehwal, 19, became the first Indian woman to reach the Olympic singles quarter-finals in Beijing last year. (ANI)

Minor fire at Taj Mahal hotel of Mumbai

Mumbai, June 27 (ANI): Six fire tenders and eight water tankers were rushed to the Taj Mahal hotel on Saturday after a minor fire broke out in the basement area of the hotel.

The incident, which took place due to short-circuit, however, did not involve any casualty and the fire was soon brought under control.

“Fire down at the basement near the main locker room, has been put out under control, there was lot of smoke nobody injured, nobody hurt. We are just clearing out the whole thing. By evening we should be back in operations,” Krishnakant, vice chairman, Taj Hotel told media.

Fire officials said the fire was because of the short circuit detected near the staff locker room.

“The fire was there in the basement, mainly in the cable shaft, the cable caught fire so there was lot of smoke. We went inside and the fire is now totally under control,” said Uday Tatkare, deputy chief officer of Fire Brigade department.

The same hotel bore the brunt of the militant attack on November 26, 2008. (ANI)

Even tiny levels of carbon monoxide can damage fetal brain

Washington, June 26 (ANI): A new study has shown that exposure to even miniscule levels of carbon monoxide during pregnancy can have an adverse impact on fetal brain, resulting in permanent impairment.

“We expected the placenta to protect fetuses from the mother’s exposure to tiny amounts of carbon monoxide,” said John Edmond, professor emeritus of biological chemistry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

“But we found that not to be the case,” he added.

During the study, the researchers exposed pregnant rats to 25 parts per million carbon monoxide in the air, a level considered safe.

Dr. Ivan Lopez, UCLA associate professor of head and neck surgery, tested the rats’ litters 20 days after birth.

He found that rats born to animals who had inhaled the gas suffered chronic oxidative stress, a harmful condition caused by an excess of harmful free radicals or insufficient antioxidants.

“Oxidative stress damaged the baby rats’ brain cells, leading to a drop in proteins essential for proper function,” said Lopez.

“Oxidative stress is a risk factor linked to many disorders, including autism, cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Lou Gehrig’s disease, multiple sclerosis and cardiovascular disease. We know that it exacerbates disease,” he added.

“We believe that the minute levels of carbon monoxide in the mother rats’ environment made their offspring more vulnerable to illness,” said Edmond.

“Our findings highlight the need for policy makers to re-examine the regulation of carbon monoxide,” the expert added.

Tobacco smoke, gas heaters, stoves and ovens all emit carbon monoxide, which can rise to high concentrations in well-insulated homes. Infants and children are particularly vulnerable to carbon monoxide exposure because they spend a great deal of time in the home.

The findings appear in journal BMC (BioMed Central) Neuroscience. (ANI)

Taliban created by government, military as hedge against India: Pak Experts

Islamabad, June 24 (ANI): While Pakistan does not leave any stone unturned in blaming foreign countries, including India and the US for the Taliban menace, Pakistan based experts have refuted such notions saying that the insurgents are a local product.

Speaking at a conference, ‘Countering Talibanisation: The Way Forward’ here, several experts blamed the government and the military for nurturing the Taliban and other extremist organizations to use them against rival countries, particularly India.

“If someone calls Taliban agents of the US, I will not accept it. They are a local product,” said Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, a famous analyst.

Hoodbhoy stressed that Taliban was neither the product of US nor Israel or India, as claimed by a certain fraternity; rather, he said the extremists were produced at local seminaries.

Speaking on the occasion, the Awami National Party (ANP) Senator, Afrasiab Khattak opined that Pakistan must stop nurturing terror against its neighbours, and learn to live peacefully with Iran, China, Afghanistan and India.

“There is no smoke without fire,” said Khattak.

He blamed several former military generals for creating the Taliban in their bid to gain strategic depth in the region, and in case of an altercation with India.

Khattak also charged the United States of providing help and funding the extremists in the past to crush communism.

“Thousands of seminaries were set up to produce Taliban, who were described as Mujahideen lovingly by the West. The West funded the Taliban to defeat communism and this derailed Pakistan,” The News quoted Khattak, as saying.

Chairman of the Parliament’s Committee on National Security, Raza Rabbani also highlighted that militants have been funded by foreign powers over the last several years, and this practice which must be stopped if Pakistan actually wants to alienate itself from the menace which has now turned into a monster.

“The problem of militancy is not so simple. It is multi-dimensional. The world powers know it well from where it has been funded and nurtured. There is a need to stop the outside funding,” said Rabbani. (ANI)