Cultivation of plants possible on Mars: Researcher

Cultivation of plants possible on Mars: Researcher

Cultivation of various plant species, also food plants, is possible on the soil of Mars, according to ecologist Wieger Wamelink of the Dutch research institute Alterra of Wageningen University. To investigate whether it is possible to grow plants in the soil of Mars and on the moon, researchers undertook an experiment with 14 plant species […]

China to become largest energy importer by 2035: Report

China to become largest energy importer by 2035: Report

China is expected to exceed Europe to become the largest energy importer in the world by 2035, said a report issued by British oil giant BP. The annual Energy Outlook 2035 report, released Wednesday, forecast global energy consumption to grow 41 percent from 2012 to 2035 — slower than the growth of 55 percent during […]

Planet found orbiting Sun-like star

Planet found orbiting Sun-like star

Three new exoplanets have been discovered orbiting stars in the Messier 67 star cluster and one of them circles a star that is nearly identical to the Sun, according to European Southern Observatory, or ESO, officials. The find, which was made using the ESO’s new HARPS telescope instrument at the La Silla Observatory in Chile […]

Poland’s first face transplant earns world recognition

Poland’s first face transplant earns world recognition

Poland’s first-ever face transplant has been recognised as the world’s best example of reconstructive surgery of 2013 at a recent annual meeting of the American Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery (ASRM) in Hawaii, media reported Thursday. The surgery was carried out in May 2013 at the Institute of Oncology in Gliwice of southern Poland by a […]

Foggy Friday morning, partly cloudy day ahead

Foggy Friday morning, partly cloudy day ahead

The national capital was enveloped in dense fog Friday morning with the minimum temperature recorded at 8.2 degrees Celsius, one notch above the season’s average. “The day ahead will be partly cloudy and light rain and thunder shower are expected in the afternoon,” said an official of the India Meteorological Department. The maximum temperature is […]

National grasscourt tennis: Ashwin scalps top seed Prashanth

National grasscourt tennis: Ashwin scalps top seed Prashanth

Wild card Ashwin Vijayaraghavan from Andhra Pradesh continued his great run to shock top seed Tamil Nadu’s Vijay Sundar Prashanth and storm into the semi-final of the national grasscourt tennis championship here Thursday. Prashanth took the first set of the men’s quarter-final outing 6-4 with a break of serve in the fourth game at the […]

India proposes to double SAARC business visa

India proposes to double SAARC business visa

India Thursday proposed to more than double SAARC sticker business visa to 500, with a view to enhance economic engagements among the South Asian countries. Addressing the inaugural session of the fifth SAARC Business Leaders Conference here, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said India supports any proposal of easing regional visa regulations. “There should […]

Barriers to bilateral trade have to be removed: Pakistan

Barriers to bilateral trade have to be removed: Pakistan

Pakistan Thursday said barriers to bilateral trade with India have to be removed. Pakistan’s Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan said other impediments to boosting India-Pakistan trade such as non-tariff barriers, lack of adequate connectivity and transportation, issues of standards, customs harmonisation, communication, visa facilitation, payment mechanisms and dispute resolution need to be addressed. Addressing an […]

12 soldiers killed in Al Qaeda attack in Yemen

12 soldiers killed in Al Qaeda attack in Yemen

Al Qaeda militants killed 12 soldiers in attacks on a police station and two military posts in Yemen’s southeastern province of al-Bayda Thursday, a government official said. “Two military posts and a police centre were attacked by a group of Al Qaeda gunmen who threw explosives into the sites manned by army soldiers and opened […]

30 killed in attacks across Iraq

30 killed in attacks across Iraq

At least 30 people were killed and 25 others wounded in the latest wave of violent attacks across Iraq, police said Thursday. An Iraqi police patrol Thursday found the bodies of 14 people who had been shot dead in an orchard in Mshahada, a Sunni Arab village near Tarmiyah, some 30 km north of Baghdad, […]