Malaria gene 'increases HIV risk'

A gene which apparently evolved to protect people from malaria increases their vulnerability to HIV infection by 40%, say US and UK scientists.
People of African descent have a variation of the "DARC" gene which may interfere with their ability to fight HIV in its early stages. The Microbe study says the gene accounts for millions of extra HIV cases in sub-Saharan Africa. However, people with the gene appear to live longer with HIV than others.

"There has always been this myth that people in sub-Saharan Africa were more likely to get HIV because of differences in their sexual behaviour, or that they are more promiscuous ."

Mysterious Insect Baffles Experts have been baffled by the presence of an unidentified insect in parts of London.
The tiny red and black bug first appeared in the Natural History Museum's Wildlife Garden in March 2007. Since then it has become the most common insect in the garden and has also been spotted in Regent's Park and Gray's Inn.

Water 'Widespread' on Early Mars Water was once widespread on Mars, data from a Nasa spacecraft shows, raising the prospect that the Red Planet could have supported life.

Researchers found evidence of vast lakes, flowing rivers and deltas on early Mars, all of which were potential habitats for microbes.They also discovered that wet conditions probably persisted for a long time on the Red Planet.

It wasn't this hot, boiling cauldron. It was a benign, water-rich environment for a long period of time.

Black And White Twins: Brothers From The Same Mother

Some things aren’t always black and white. Then again, sometimes they are – like the twin sons born July 11 to a German couple. The first baby, Ryan, has light skin and blue eyes. His brother, Leo, is dark skinned with brown eyes. "None of us could believe it," the maternity ward's head doctor, Birgit Weber, told one news source, "Both kids have definitely the same father."

" It was “a real surprise,” Gerth told the German newspaper Die Welt, adding that the most important thing to him isn’t color, but that everyone is healthy.

House Speaker Pelosi calls Bush ‘a total failure’

WASHINGTON - President Bush has been a "total failure" in everything from the economy to the war to energy policy, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday. In an interview on CNN, the California Democrat was asked to respond to video of the president criticizing the Democratic-led Congress for heading into the final 26 days of the legislative session without having passed a single government spending bill.

Grunting fish yield vocal clues

Grunting fish have helped scientists to date the origins of vocal sounds to about 400 million years ago.

Toadfish and midshipman fish use a variety of different sounds to attract mates and scare off rivals. Now US researchers have found that the area of a fish's brain that drives vocalization is extremely primitive.

Latest Little ThinkPad Delivers Big Performance

Bolstered by the new Intel Centrino 2 mobile platform, the all-new Lenovo ThinkPad X200 ultraportable notebook delivers better-than-average speed in a smaller-than-average package.

Online Fashion Boutiques: New Fashion Trend?

What is good and what is bad about online fashion boutiques? Let's have a look using an example of a newly launched one...

The announcements and press releases say that "featuring the hottest and freshest fashions from top designers, http://www.shopadorabella.com/ officially “opened for business” this week, offering customers trendy, hard-to-find items, free shipping and fashion tips on “what’s hot”. The range of items is quite wide. The choice of fashionable items seems to reflect the season and pubic interest (closely correlationg with what we call fashion). The hope page is featuring Rachel Mara's new Bird Print Dress for summer. It is really stylish, and sure to inspire compliments wherever you wear it.

Cyclone Nargis Had All the Makings of a 'Perfect Storm'

BANGKOK, Thailand — A cyclone with winds up to 120 mph. A low-lying, densely populated delta region, stripped of its protective trees.

When Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta and pushed a wall of water 25 miles inland, it had all the makings of a massive disaster."When we saw the (storm's) track, I said, 'Uh oh, this is not going to be good," said Mark Lander, a meteorology professor at the University of Guam. "It would create a big storm surge. It was like Katrina going into New Orleans."

Thousands At burials of Returned Israeli Soldiers.

Karnit Goldwasser, center, the wife of Israeli soldier Ehud Goldwasser, is comforted during her husbands funeral in a military cemetery in Nahariya, northern Israel, Thursday, July 17, 2008. Thousands of mourners gathered on Thursday in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya to bury Goldwasser, the first of two soldiers returned in a prisoner exchange with Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas.