Pakistan is interested in advancing its ties with Israel if there is an improvement in the political situation in the region, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said.
Qureshi's remarks assume significance as Pakistan does not recognise Israel and the two nations have no diplomatic ties.
"Pakistan is interested in advancing its relations with Israel, but this is a question of the political situation in the region," Qureshi told Ma'ariv, an Israeli news portal, on the sidelines of recently concluded Munich Security Conference.
"Progress in solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be very helpful," he said adding, "if the American plan succeeds in doing so, it will be good. We wish all the best for Israel. We have many friends in the region and we would like you to join them," the Pakistani minister was quoted as saying.
Pakistan and Israel have also in the past tried to engage each other with their foreign ministers meeting on September 1, 2005 in Istanbul in a much ...

Pakistan interested in advancing its ties with Israel: Qureshi

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Oxford researchers claim to have carried out the world's first gene therapy operation to halt age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of untreatable blindness in the developed world.
Dry AMD is a slow deterioration of the cells of the macula. It affects the central part of a patient's vision with gaps or 'smudges', making everyday activities like reading and recognising faces difficult.
If successful, the treatment could have a beneficial impact of patients' quality of life and their ability to remain independent.
"A genetic treatment administered early on to preserve the vision in patients who would otherwise lose their sight would be a tremendous breakthrough and certainly something I hope to see in the near future," said Robert MacLaren, Professor at the University of Oxford in the UK.
The first person to undergo the procedure was Janet Osborne of Oxford, said MacLaren, who carried out the procedure at the John Radcliffe Hospital in the UK.
Like many people with ..

'World's first gene therapy to halt most common cause of blindness'

South Africa will be seeking to bounce back in the second Test against Sri Lanka, starting at St George's Park on Thursday, after Kusal Perera'a heroics handed them a chastening defeat in the first Test.
Perera became a national hero in Sri Lanka after scoring an unbeaten 153 in Durban to guide his country to a sensational first Test victory in South Africa.
Although it was Perera who stole the headlines in the team's dramatic one-wicket win, the rest of the players rose to rookie captain Dimuth Karunaratne's challenge to "compete in every session".
With Sri Lanka having a largely unheralded bowling attack, it seems South Africa seriously under-estimated their opponents.
In consequence, South Africa are likely to have a change of strategy after going into the Durban match with a four-pronged pace attack as well as spinner Keshav Maharaj. It left them with only six recognised batsmen.
Left-arm swing bowler Vishwa Fernando and debutant left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya took eight and .

South Africa seek to bounce back after Perera heroics

Indonesia has submitted a bid to host the 2032 Olympics, officials said Tuesday, after the Southeast Asian nation's widely lauded handling of the Asian Games last summer.
Muliaman Hadad, Indonesia's ambassador to Switzerland, submitted a formal bid letter from President Joko Widodo to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne last week, the foreign ministry confirmed Tuesday.
"This is the right moment to show Indonesia's capability as a big country," Hadad said in a statement made public this week.
Widodo publicly expressed Indonesia's interest in hosting the 2032 event in the capital, Jakarta, during last year's Asian Games -- the world's second biggest multi-sport event behind the Olympics.
India has also expressed an interest in hosting the 2032 games while North and South Korea have said they might enter a joint bid.
The IOC will announce the 2032 host by 2025. If successful, Indonesia would be the fourth Asian Olympics host after Japan, South Korea and China.
The next 

Indonesia submits formal bid to host the 2032 Olympics

Killer immune cells that can fight all strains of influenza virus may pave the way for a universal, one-shot flu vaccine, according to a study.
These microscopic killers are white blood cells that can maintain a memory of previous exposure to a flu strain, said researchers from the University of Melbourne in Australia.
If they recognise an invader, these cells start an immune response to target and kill off the virus -- stopping the infection, they said.
Despite hopes that the 'memories' of killer cells -- formally known as CD8+T cells -- could be used to create a vaccine that would last for life, previous studies have shown that these cells could only mount a repeated attack against strain A.
Using new technology, a study published in the journal Nature Immunology, reveals game-changing results -- the 'killer cells' can actually fight all influenza strains, A, B and C.
"Our team has been fascinated by the killer cells for a long time," said Katherine Kedzierska, a professor at the ...

'Killer cells' may pave way for life-long, universal flu vaccine

Director James Cameron has revealed that Hollywood stars Chris Evans and Channing Tatum had auditioned for the lead role in his 2009 sci-fi blockbuster "Avatar".
The 64-year-old director said he found the performance of Sam Worthington better for the part of disabled former marine Jake Sully than the other two stars.
"That was my choice. I really liked Channing's appeal. I liked Chris' appeal. They were both great guys. But Sam had a quality of voice and a quality of intensity," he said during his recent appearance on the Empire Podcast.
"Everybody did about the same on all the material through the script, except for the final speech where he stands up and says, 'This is our land, ride now, go as fast as the wind can carry you'. That whole thing. I would have followed him into battle. And I wouldn't have followed the other guys. They've since gone onto fantastic careers and all that, but Sam was ready. He was ready," he added.
The director is currently shooting for four sequels of the 

Chris Evans and Channing Tatum auditioned for 'Avatar', says James Cameron

Social media platforms like Facebook can help support the health and wellbeing of people following a natural disaster, a study claims.
A wellbeing campaign called 'All Right?' was created in 2013 to support people's mental health and wellbeing following the devastating Canterbury earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 in New Zealand.
The research, published in the journal Health Promotion International, showed that  85 per cent of respondents to an online survey had taken action as a result of what they had seen on the campaign's Facebook page.
"While social media provides a great platform to have a conversation with a community, a lot of the time it can fall flat or feel preachy," said Ekant Veer, associate professor at University of Canterbury at New Zealand.
"What 'All Right?' has shown is that by getting the tone right, tapping into people's everyday experiences, and alternating between engaging and specialised content, social media can be a force for good," said Veer.
Almost all ...

Social media can help boost well-being post disaster: Study

Veteran actor Whoopi Goldberg says during her initial days in the film industry people did not consider her attractive because she was "black".
In an interview with Garage magazine, the 63-year-old comedienne said even though she had a "hot bod", the team of her 1987 film "Fatal Beauty" didn't think of her as a woman.
"Nobody who worked on ('Fatal Beauty') saw me as sexy. They didn't even think of me as a woman. Because I'm black," Goldberg said.
In the action-comedy, Goldberg played a narcotics police officer who gets close with the bodyguard of a drug smuggler played by Sam Elliot.

Nobody on 'Fatal Beauty' sets saw me as sexy because I'm black: Whoopi Goldberg

Lithium-air batteries, which run on ambient oxygen, may be a sustainable and environment-friendly way to store energy and power electric vehicles, houses, and industries of the future, scientists say.
Current lithium ion battery technology will probably not be able to handle the coming decades' huge demand for energy. It is estimated that by 2050, electricity will make up 50 per cent of the world's energy mix.
Today, that rate is 18 per cent. However, installed capacity for renewable energy production is expected to increase fourfold.
This will require batteries that are more efficient, cheaper and environmentally friendly.
According to researchers from University of Campinas in Brazil, one of the alternatives being studied today in many parts of the world is the lithium-air battery.
The lithium-air battery, currently functioning only on a laboratory scale, uses ambient oxygen as a reagent. The battery stores additional energy through an electrochemical reaction that results in the ...

Lithium-air batteries may power future cars, houses: Study

Learning Hinduism and reading the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata have taken a chunk of Missy Franklin's time ever since the five-time Olympic gold-medallist swimmer announced a shock retirement in December last year.
Chronic shoulder pain forced the 23-year-old to call time on her career but on the bright side, it allowed her to do things that she couldn't do as an active athlete.
Earlier, she did Yoga for fun but after exploring Hinduism, it became a spiritual experience for the bubbly American, who is majoring in religion at the University of Georgia.
"I have been studying religion for a year now and it is so fascinating and eye opening. I love learning different cultures, people and their faith," Franklin told PTI on the sidelines of the 'Laureus World Sports Awards'.
"My own religion is Christianity but two classes I have found so intriguing are Hinduism and Islam. Because those are the two religions I did not know a lot about and after reading and learning about them, I think .

After shock retirement at 23, Missy Franklin finds peace in Hinduism

Myanmar set up a committee to discuss reforming the country's military-drafted constitution on Tuesday, pitting Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government openly against the powerful armed forces for the first time over the incendiary issue.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a landslide in 2015 elections, but was forced into an uneasy power-sharing agreement with the armed forces.
Under a 2008 charter it drafted, the military controls all security ministries and is gifted a quarter of parliamentary seats.
That hands the army an effective veto over any constitutional change.
Suu Kyi's party has promised to reform the controversial document.
With 2020 polls looming, parliament voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to form a cross-party committee to debate reforms of the charter.
The main purpose of the "all-inclusive" panel will be to "write a bill to change the 2008 constitution", deputy speaker and committee chair Tun Tun Hein, an NLD lawmaker, told parliament.
The NLD will ..

Myanmar picks panel to reform army-scripted constitution

Gene therapy first to halt most common cause of blindness

"Milan Talkies" directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia will hit the theatres on March 15.
The film produced by PS Chhatwal and Filmy Keeda Productions features Ali Fazal and Shraddha Srinath in the lead roles.
"'Milan Talkies' is very close to my heart. It is a beautiful desi romantic love story set in Uttar Pradesh. Ali and Shraddha have done a brilliant job. I am really looking forward to showing the film to the audience. I hope they like it," Dhulia said in a statement.
Chhatwal added that the film is a "different" love story and promises good dose of entertainment.
The poster of the movie featuring the lead pair was also released on Tuesday.
Fazal said he liked the setting of the film.
"What really hit my heart was the fact that this boy works at a projection room that is the hub of communication to the outside world in a small city like Allahabad and yet he is unable to communicate his love to his girlfriend.
"It is a story revolving around them in the period when the single screen where ..

'Milan Talkies' to release on March 15

Pakistan has come out of the financial crisis with the help of friendly countries and the economy has been set on the right path, the governor of the cash-strapped country's central bank has claimed.
Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan Tariq Bajwa's remarks coincided with the announcement by Saudi Arabia that it would invest USD 20 billion in Pakistan under various projects.
Bawja told an audience at a private university in Lahore on Monday that uncertainty in the economy had ended, while the government was on the right path and it was capable of meeting all economic challenges, Dawn reported.
The governor spoke about the current account deficit, which had hit the economy badly during the current financial year.
The current account deficit was the real cause of concern for the new government headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan. Khan visited friendly countries like China, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Malaysia and Turkey to seek investment and managed to get financial help to bridge the ...

Pakistan is out of financial crisis: claims central bank governor

Antibiotic resistance in bacteria spreads much faster and with more varied mechanisms than previously thought, say scientists who suggest exercising caution in the use of the drugs.
By studying fish raised in aquaculture, researchers from the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen in Germany, the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and the University of Campinas in Brazil have shed new light on the mechanisms by which antibiotic resistance genes are transferred between bacteria.
According to the study published in the journal 'Microbiome', those mechanisms are more varied than previously thought.
"In the past 70 years, the use of antibiotics in human and veterinary medicine has steadily increased, leading to a dramatic rise in resistant microorganisms," said Michael Schloter, head of the Research Unit for Comparative Microbiome Analyses (COMI) at Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen.
It is especially alarming that many microorganisms are resistant not just to one antibiotic, but to a whole range of different 

Antibiotic resistance spreading faster than thought: Study

Rapper and music mogul P Diddy's wax figure was brutally  decapitated in New York City Madame Tussauds.
According to NBC, an unidentified assailant toppled over his wax figure on the ninth floor of the iconic Madame Tussauds Wax Museum on Sunday, causing the figure's head to fall off.
The attacker, who was reportedly yelling and aggressively gesturing towards the wax statue, proceeded to stomp on the decapitated head.
New York police is investigating the matter and they described by police as white or Hispanic and in his 20s or 30s, Page Six reported.
The outburst caused an estimated USD 300,000 in damages.
Motive for the attack remains unclear.

P Diddy's wax figure decapitated at Madame Tussauds

Pakistan's civil and military leadership is expected to meet this week to discuss the increasing tensions with India following one of the worst terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir in which over 40 Indian soldiers were killed, according to a media report on Tuesday.
On February 14, 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed in Kashmir's Pulwama district in a suicide attack claimed by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terror group.
The attack has heightened bilateral tensions with both New Delhi and Islamabad calling back their envoys.
The Express Tribune reported that the Pakistani envoy would brief the civil and military leadership about the current situation in India.
The high-powered National Security Committee (NSC), the highest decision-making forum on national security and foreign policy, is likely to meet this week. The meeting would be presided over by Prime Minister Imran Khan and attended by key federal ministers as well as the services chiefs, the report ...

Pak civil, military leadership to meet to discuss tensions with India after Pulwama attack: Report

The talks between the US and China to end a damaging trade war will resume from Tuesday in Washington, the White House has announced.
The talks follow a round of negotiations that ended last week in Beijing without a deal but which officials said had generated progress on contentious issues between the two trading partners.
The talks are aimed at "achieving needed structural changes in China that affect trade between the United States and China. The two sides will also discuss China's pledge to purchase a substantial amount of goods and services from the United States," the White House said in a statement.
The two countries are running against time to arrive at a trade deal before the March 1 deadline set by President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
The US and China have been locked in an escalating trade spat since early 2018, raising import tariffs on each other's goods.
Last year, Trump imposed tariff hikes of up to 25 per cent on USD 250 billion of Chinese ...

US-China trade talks to resume in Washington

Hundreds of Indian-Americans gathered in various US cities to mourn the killing of at least 40 Indian soldiers in one of the worst terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district.
At least 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed on February 14 in a suicide attack claimed by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror group.
The attack has heightened bilateral tensions with both New Delhi and Islamabad calling back their envoys.
Expressing their outrage, hundreds of Indian-Americans gathered at the 9/11 memorial on the outskirts of Chicago on Sunday and urged that all nations need to stand together with India and the US in their fight against those carrying out such "heinous crimes".
In a joint resolution read out on the occasion, the participants held peaceful candle light protest in Naperville, Illinois and called upon Pakistan to "end immediately" support to all terrorist groups operating from its soil.
"We mourn the loss of 40 Indian security personnel .

Indian-Americans across US mourn Pulwama terror attack victims

Pakistan has sought the UN's urgent intervention to "defuse tensions" with India, the Foreign Office said Tuesday, following one of the worst terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir in which over 40 Indian soldiers were killed.
On February 14, at least 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed in Kashmir's Pulwama district in a suicide attack claimed by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terror group.
The attack has heightened bilateral tensions with both New Delhi and Islamabad calling back their envoys.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday, seeking his help to reduce the tensions between the two countries, Pakistan Foreign Office said.
"It is with a sense of urgency that I draw your attention to the deteriorating security situation in our region resulting from the threat of use of force against Pakistan by India," Qureshi wrote in the letter.
India has rejected any third party intervention in the .

Pak seeks urgent UN intervention to de-escalate fresh tensions with India

Scientists have developed a new method based on blockchain technology to help verify and trace natural diamonds, and fully guarantee their authenticity.
In a situation where natural, synthetic and fake stones exist in the diamond market, the system could protect the financial assets of market participants, said researchers from the National University of Science and Technology in Russia.
The modern diamond industry is undergoing a period of global restructuring, they said.
This expansion is explained by scientific achievements that are pushing for an increase in diamond volumes for potential applications, both for jewelery and industry.
Modern synthetic diamonds are almost as good as natural diamonds in terms of quality and chemical composition. With these trends, gemologists often cannot distinguish a good synthetic diamond from a natural one.
Taking into account the growth of the market and the multiple possible diamond origins, the guarantee of authenticity is becoming crucial.
A ..

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