London: Scientists have found the brain`s most miserable molecule - a protein involved in all our feelings of stress, anxiety and depression - paving way for development of new drugs to control it.   Researchers used the Diamond Light Source, a particle accelerator at Harwell in Oxfordshire, which generates some of the world`s most powerful x-ray beams, to study molecules that jut from the outer surfaces of cells in the brain`s pituitary gland.   It is already known that the pituitary plays a crucial role in anxiety and depression by releasing stress chemicals into the blood.   However, it was not known how the response was triggered, although a protein named CRF1

The Shiv Sena today promised its firm support to the BJP, which it partners in a national alliance, the NDA, but seemed unwilling to acknowledge that Narendra Modi is fast emerging as a frontrunner in his party to be named its candidate for Prime Minister.
 
Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said, "The country needs a reliable face. Can you find one
face who fits? Can you see one? Since we cannot see a clear face, let us elect a strong government."
 
Asked by reporters who the face of the NDA would be in the elections, Mr Thackeray said, "We have a lot of credible people. Have some patience. We will definitely show you the face."

Peshawar: A prominent Pakistani Taliban commander has written a letter to Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenage girl shot in the head by the group, expressing regrets that he didn't warn her before the assassination attempt that propelled her activism to the international stage.

The letter from Adnan Rasheed, however, didn't apologize for the October attack that left Malala Yousafzai gravely wounded. Rasheed, who has close relations with Taliban leaders, only said that he found the shooting "shocking" and wished it hadn't happened.

Rasheed said he would leave it up to God to decide whether the outspoken activist for girls' education s

Baghdad: A bomb exploded outside a Sunni mosque (Abu Bakr al-Sadiq) in the town of Wajihiya in Diyala province on Friday killing at least 20 people and injuring many while extending a daily wave of violence rippling across Iraq since the holy month of Ramadan began.    The blast occurred during sermon inside the mosque leaving at least 20 dead, officials said.    Iraq is weathering its worst eruption of violence in half a decade, raising fears the country is heading back toward widespread sectarian fighting that peaked in 2006 and 2007. More than 2,600 people have been killed since the start of April.    The pace of the bloodshed has picked up since

India is the 15th most dangerous country when it comes to dangers associated with surfing the web, if a foreign survey is to be believed.   A survey by Russian cyber security laboratory Kaspersky found that 35.6% out of a sample of net users were attacked by web-borne threats during April-June, 19,938,954 internet-borne malware incidents occurred on the computers of survey-participants in India for the same period of study.   "This places India at the 15th place worldwide when it comes to the dangers associated with surfing the web," the company said, adding that the numbers were based on completely anonymous data obtained from its products installed on users'

A Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by Japan Airlines made an unscheduled landing at the Boston's Logan International Airport soon after takeoff after pilots noticed a glowing indicator light in the cockpit.   The flight JL007 of Japan Airlines from Boston to Tokyo-Narita returned to the airport after taking off as a standard precautionary measure following the maintenance indicator. Airline spokeswoman Carol Anderson said that the aircraft returned to the airport under the standard operating protocol after the fuel pump indicator alerted the crew.   The Federal Aviation Administration also said that the aircraft circled around the airport to burn off fuel before landing.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has said that the increasing borrowing costs in the previous two months are linked to the strengthening economy in the country as well as over concerns that an early rollback of the stimulus package in the US.   He said that the rising bond yields are due to unwinding of leveraged and "excessively risky" investments as the monitory policy of the authorities remain accommodative. He said in a testimony before the Senate Banking Committee that the rising borrowing costs are a result of better economic news as well as concerns over a roll back of the stimulus package by the Federal Reserve and changing bond-market bets.   Offi

The Supreme Court today quashed the Medical Council of India's (MCI) notification for holding common entance tests for MBBS, BDS and post-graduate medical courses.   Related: SC lifts embargo on medical entrance results   A three-judge bench by a 2:1 verdict held that the MCI notification was ultra vires of the Constitution. The apex court, however, made it clear that its verdict will not affect the admissions which have already taken place.   The majority verdict by Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir and Justice Vikramajit Sen said that MCI is not empowered to prescribe all India medical entrance tests. The bench said that the MCI notification was in violati

NEW DELHI: Two Air India pilots have been suspended after they allowed a south Indian actress to sit inside the cockpit mid-air on a Bangalore-Hyderabad flight in flagrant violation of safety norms.   "Both pilots have been suspended and taken off the roster. An inquiry is going on," airline officials said, adding that the matter came to light after a passenger lodged a complaint with the airline. The pilots have been identified as Jagan M Reddy and S Kiran.   Aviation regulator DGCA has taken a serious view of the incident which took place last month, official sources said on Thursday.   While both the pilots were suspended by the national carrier pendin

Washington, July 17 : Making a push for immigration reforms, a key priority of his second term agenda, President Barack Obama has said a bill without a path to citizenship for illegal residents "does not make sense."   "It does not make sense to me, if we're gonna make this once-in-a-generation effort to finally fix the system, to leave the status of 11 million people or so unresolved," Obama said in an interview with the Spanish-language network Telemundo's Denver, Colorado, affiliate.   Such a plan, he said, would run counter to American values. "It's not who we are as Americans," Obama said, according to a transcript of the inter

At least 20 children died and 80 others fell sick after consuming mid-day meal at a government primary school in Saran district of Bihar on Tuesday.

The toll is likely to go up since many children, admitted in different hospitals, are fighting for their lives in an uncertain condition. One of the woman cooks was also said to be critical.

The children, all students of Navsrijit Primary School, Dharmasati, under Mashrakh police station, started vomiting after eating their mid- day meal. While two of them died soon after, nine others lost their lives in the hospital.

Though the exact cause of the food poisoning wasn't known, adulterated oil is sa

Washington: Iron may not have played an important role in the formation of the North Pacific Ocean, new research has revealed.

At the end of the last Ice Age, as the world began to warm, a swath of the North Pacific Ocean came to life. During a brief pulse of biological productivity 14,000 years ago, this stretch of the sea teemed with phytoplankton, amoeba-like foraminifera and other tiny creatures, who thrived in large numbers until the productivity ended-as mysteriously as it began-just a few hundred years later.
    A new study led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists and colleagues at the University of Bristol (

New Delhi: Today Google celebrates the 407th anniversary of the birth of the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn with its customary doodle.

The image features a portrait of Rembrandt van Rijn with the words Google written behind him.

Born as Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn on 15 July 1606 he is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history.

At the beginning of his artistic career Rembrandt mainly painted portraits and a tenth of them were self portraits, but biblical themes formed the core of Rembrandt's significant works. He embraced realism and innovative techniq

New Delhi: Just 15 minutes to midnight on Sunday, the iconic telegram breathed its last in the capital with the last message sent to Rahul Gandhi.
    The telegram counter closed at 11:45 PM and the revenue collected was Rs 68,837 as the country bid adieu to the harbinger of good and bad news for generations of Indians.   The total booking today was 2,197 of which billing through computer accounted for 1,329 and phone booking 91, a senior telegraph officer said.

PTI     Source: Zee Media Bureau

Pune: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) poll panel chief Narendra Modi on Sunday launched a scathing attack on the UPA government and the Congress, claiming that they had taken the people of the country for granted. Addressing party workers in Pune, the Gujarat Chief Minister said that the dynasty politics of the country had ruined the dreams and aspirations of the common man.

Reiterating his slogan of a 'Congress-free India', Modi said that the root cause of the problems was the vote bank politics being played by the Centre.

"They feel that they should keep winning elections, indulge in vote bank politics, collect votes and run the country as per their

Etawah: In Uttar Pradesh, which has reported several horrific assaults on young girls in the last few days, a college student is battling for life in hospital after being allegedly raped and set on fire by a man known to her.
 
The gruesome incident happened in Etawah, the home district of Mulayam Singh Yadav, chief of the Samajwadi Party which rules Uttar Pradesh.
 
On Tuesday evening, the police said, a young man known to the student invited her to his home, where he allegedly raped her. When the girl resisted, he allegedly poured kerosene on her and set her on fire.

She was taken first to the village hospital and then shifted to a hospi

He was truly what legends are made of - a natural talent and a thorough professional with a versatility. Actor Pran left for his heavenly abode late Friday evening. His death is deemed as a big loss for the Hindi film industry. He was 93.

Born as Pran Kishan Sikand, he was popular as Pran, and many, out of the respect the legend commanded, addressed him as "Pran sahab".

Pran breathed his last at the Lilavati Hospital following prolonged illness, said his son.

Pran's condition was frail since the past few months and he was in and out of hospital multiple times. He was reportedly last admitted to the Lilavati Hospital just a week back.

Boston: Acoustics pioneer Amar Bose, founder and chairman of the audio technology company Bose Corp, known for the rich sound of its small tabletop radios and its noise-canceling headphones popular among frequent fliers, has died at age 83.

Bose's death was announced on Friday by the company's president, Bob Maresca, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Bose began his acoustics research and was on the faculty for more than 40 years.

Details about Bose's death weren't immediately available.

Bose founded the company, based in Framingham, just outside Boston, in 1964. Maresca said the company will remain privately held

A medical examination has found ruptured or absent hymens in 13 of the 15 Manipuri girls rescued from an illegal children's home in Jaipur in March, confirming sexual exploitation.

The youngest of these children is only seven years old; the oldest is 15.

Nine of the 13 girls have been found suffering from leucorrhoea, a vaginal discharge typically seen among sex workers and girls and women with poor hygiene.

According to the report of the medical examination, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, the 20 children — 15 girls and five boys — were examined by a panel of doctors led by the medical superintendent of Ukhrul district

BANGALORE: Skeletons are tumbling out of the cupboard of the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC), hit by a scam in the recruitment of gazetted probationary officers. The recruitment racket was well-oiled and streamlined. Details provided by KPSC members, officials and middlemen have left CID amazed.


The investigators told TOI every job had a fixed price. The posts of assistant commissioner, deputy superintendent of police and commercial tax officer fetched the highest price: Rs 40-Rs 60 lakh. A tahasildar's job could be obtained for Rs 20-Rs 30 lakh.

The price of the first posting played a role in determining the bribe.

A father