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NJ approves hunt to thin black bear population after problems with aggressive animals

As NYC area spreads, so do bears; NJ hunt approved

Facebook reaches 500 mn users

SAN FRANCISCO - Social networking site Facebook officially has 500 million users, the company announced Wednesday.

American Electric takes southern Ind. coal-fired power plant offline after weekend steam leak

Steam leak takes southern Ind. power plant offline

EPA says TransCanada’s environmental report doesn’t address key concerns

EPA: Keystone XL impact statement needs revising

Statue of Liberty evacuated briefly after sensor falsely indicates smoke; everyone safe

Statue of Liberty evacuated, then declared safe

Flights document 1 million acres of dead whitebark pine in and around Yellowstone

Study: Yellowstone-area whitebark toll 1M acres

Whale crashes whale-watching party off South Africa

CAPE TOWN - A whale-watching expedition off the South African coast took a dramatic turn when a more than 10-metre-long whale crashed itself onto the deck of the yacht following it, the excursion members reported Wednesday.

Botswana High Court denies Kalahari’s indigenous Bushmen water rights in their homeland

Court denies Kalahari Bushmen water rights

NASA satellites produce first map of global forest heights

WASHINGTON - For the first time, NASA scientists have produced a map of the height of the world’s forests by combining data from three satellites.

Single portal for e-governance services in Gujarat

GANDHINAGAR - Gujarat Wednesday unveiled a single stop portal –www.portal.gujarat.gov.in — for all its e-governance services.

Archaeologists carry out virtual excavation of Stonehenge

LONDON - Archaeologists have taken excavation one step further - they are carrying out a virtual excavation of Stonehenge to discover what the area looked like when the monument was built.

BP reduces number of boats skimming oil in Gulf; captains concerned oil giant pulling out

BP reduces number of boats skimming oil in Gulf

Flowers, gardens to cover Delhi’s sanitary landfill

NEW DELHI - The Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) sanitary landfill sites, which are associated with heaps of garbage and foul smell, will now be surrounded with fragrant flowers and gardens, an official said Wednesday.

Cloudy day, rains expected late in night

NEW DELHI - Delhiites experienced a cloudy Wednesday and the maximum temperature remained two notches below average at 35 degrees Celsius as the weatherman predicted rains towards late night.

Indian remote sensing satellite beams high quality images

BANGALORE - India’s latest remote sensing satellite Cartosat-2B has started beaming high quality images of the country’s landscape from the earth’s lower orbit, India’s space agency said Wednesday.

Facebook alert after Oz woman’s sex assault claim

Sydney, July 21 (ANI): A Sydney woman has claimed that she was sexually assaulted by a man she met briefly on a social networking website.

Researchers propose new approach to find alien life

WASHINGTON - For almost half a decade, the SETI project has unsuccessfully searched for alien life. However, SETI may be looking for the wrong kind of signals from extraterrestrials, believe two researchers.

Zinc spray for common cold can lead to loss of smell: Study

MELBOURNE - A new study has warned that zinc nasal gels and sprays are not only ineffective in preventing or reducing the duration of the common cold but can cause users to lose their sense of smell.

New genetic marker of ovarian cancer risk discovered

WASHINGTON - Scientists from the Yale University have discovered a new genetic marker that can help in predicting the risk of developing the fatal and hard to detect ovarian cancer.

Image-processing algorithm reduces CT radiation by 95 pct

WASHINGTON - A new image-processing algorithm uses around 20-times less radiation to give radiologists all the information they need.

Meditation practices differ in their ingredients, effects

WASHINGTON - The Buddhist, Chinese, and Vedic traditions of meditations are different both “in their ingredients and their effects”, according to researchers.

Now, you can’t have more than 5,000 friends on Facebook

NEW YORK - Social networking site Facebook has set a limit allowing users to have only 5000 friends.

Five-second rule for fallen food is bogus

MELBOURNE - The so-called “five-second rule” should be changed to the “zero-second rule”, say scientists at Clemson University, claiming that food that falls on the ground for even five seconds can make one sick.

Boffins discover unusual cosmic lens

WASHINGTON - Astronomers have discovered the first known case of a distant galaxy being magnified by a quasar acting as a gravitational lens.

‘Human fish’ salamander breaks lifespan record

WASHINGTON - A small cave salamander, dubbed “the human fish” because of its human-like skin tone, has broken the world’s record for longest-lived amphibian, found a study.

New method to synchronize clocks developed

WASHINGTON - Researchers have found a new way to accurately synchronize clocks.

The clocks in computers, telecommunications, and other complex systems must stay accurate to within nanoseconds because their oscillators — objects, like quartz crystals, which repeat the same motion over and over again-are synchronized to agree with the clocks on board Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites.

Arctic to be ice-free in summer by 2050

Moscow, July 21 (IANS/RIA Novosti) The Arctic will have no ice during the summer by the mid-21st Century, says the head of the Russian Meteorological Centre.

Moon builds massive snowballs in Saturn’s ring

WASHINGTON - New pictures sent in by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft show icy particles in Saturn’s F ring clumping into giant snowballs as the moon Prometheus makes multiple swings by the ring.

Training the brain can reverse age-related cognitive decline

WASHINGTON - Brain training can reverse age-related cognitive decline, the findings of a new American study suggest.

Widely used chemicals linked to ADHD in kids

WASHINGTON - A new study has suggested a link between polyfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFCs), industrial compounds which are widely used in many consumer products, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children.

Obese in outer space: Scientists discover massive star born 300 times as heavy as the sun

Scientists find most massive star ever discovered

Mother’s alcoholism especially affects daughter’s mental health

WASHINGTON - A new study has found the risk that children of an alcoholic parent run of developing a psychiatric illness later in life may depend, in part, on their gender and whether it was their mother or father who was alcohol-dependent.

Synthetic cells that act like real ones designed

WASHINGTON - Inspired by ants’ social interactions, researchers have created artificial cells capable of acting like their biological counterparts. The research paves the way towards producing synthetic cells that could perform important, microscale functions in fields ranging from the chemical industry to medicine.

World on course for hottest year since 1880

LONDON - The world is on course for the hottest year since records began in 1880 after record-breaking temperatures in four of the first six months of the year, according to meteorologists.

Blueberries, green tea may boost memory in old age

WASHINGTON - A combination of nutrients called NT-020- made from blueberries, green tea, and amino acids, such as carnosine-successfully promoted adult neural stem cell proliferation in aged rats and boosted their memory performance, found University of South Florida researchers.

Mum’s heart beats in time with that of her unborn baby

LONDON - A mother’s heart beats in sync with that of her unborn baby, found Scottish scientists-a discovery that could speed up the diagnosis of health problems in the womb.

Now, a robot that eats and poos!

MELBOURNE - Technicians in the UK have built a robot that can eat and also excrete its waste.

Iran says its nuclear scientist brought back ‘valuable’ information on the CIA

Iran says scientist provided information on CIA