US President Barack Obama US President Barack Obama has dashed the Democrats’ hopes of re-election after his approval rating hit the lowest since he took office in 2009. The results of a new Gallup poll released on Friday found Obama’s job approval rating down at 41 percent, AFP reported. The figure showed a drop of six percentage points from the group’s prior poll. Gallup said the... 

Very old age: Dustin Hoffman plays 121-year-old Jack Crabb in Little Big Man Drugs that can slow the ageing process are likely to be available this decade, raising the prospect of people living to 150 or longer. ‘Wonder’ pills that help the body repair itself are in the early stages of development and will help us live well into our second century – while stem cell therapies will... 

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who undergoes anti-cancer treatment, may live for not more than two years. This opinion was voiced by Salvador Navarrete, who had been Chavez’s personal surgeon in Venezuela. “When I say this, it means that he has no more than two years left. Judging by the information from his family, Chavez has a tumor in his pelvis, or sarcoma, and this is why he is... 

Scientists have found a way to prevent HIV from damaging the immune system and say their discovery may offer a new approach to developing a vaccine against AIDS. Researchers from the United States and Europe working in laboratories on the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) found it is unable to damage the immune system if cholesterol is removed from the virus’s membrane. “It’s like... 

British scientists have developed a new stem cell technique for growing working liver cells which could eventually avoid the need for costly and risky liver transplants. A team of researchers led by the Sanger Institute and the University of Cambridge used cutting-edge methods to correct a genetic mutation in stem cells derived from a patient’s skin biopsy, and then grew them into fresh liver... 

Apparently female driving isn’t the only thing that’s banned in Saudi Arabia. Tattoos, too, are another no-no in the ultra-conservative Middle Eastern nation — a lesson that one man and his family have learned all too well. Juan Pablo Pino, a 24-year-old soccer player from Columbia, was reportedly arrested in Saudi Arabia last Friday. Pino’s apparent offense was walking through a mall, while... 

Tim Hemmes operates the mechanical prosthetic arm During an experimental study at the University of Pittsburgh a paralyzed man managed to touch his partner’s hand using a new mind-controlled robotic arm. “It wasn’t my arm but it was my brain, my thoughts. I was moving something,” said Tim Hemmes of Pennsylvania. “I don’t have one single word to give you what I felt at that moment.... 

Australia has passed its controversial carbon tax law. One of the worst aspects of living in these apocalyptic times is that whenever you look around the world, wondering where you might escape to, you begin to realise that everywhere else is just as bad if not worse. Take Australia, an island built on fossil fuel with an economy dependent on fossil fuel. What would be the maddest economic policy a... 

Traditional words ‘father’ and ‘mother’ will be replaced with official terms Parent 1 and Parent 2 in Britain reported the BBC and the Daily Mail. The terms will be used in official documents. The authorities decided to make such a “politically correct” move to accommodate same-sex couples. Experts are sure, though, that the matter is not about the requirements... 

An ozone hole five times the size of California opened over the Arctic this spring, matching ozone loss over Antarctica for the first time on record, scientists said today. The white line marks the area within which chemical ozone destruction takes place Hole in the sky: Europe, Canada and Russia at risk as continent-sized ‘second hole’ in ozone layer opens over the Arctic. The ozone loss... 

Ketchup has been banned in student cafeterias in France within the framework of the propaganda of healthy diet. Cafeterias may now serve ketchup only with French fries and only once a week. The new rules also stipulate the increase of vegetable dishes on the menu and the decrease of the content of fat in the food. “Canteens have a public health mission, but also an educative mission,”... 

A group of New Zealand scientists and flu researchers have won a five-year, multi-million-dollar contract to study influenza in an effort to better understand the burden of the virus and how to prevent its spread around the world. New Zealand Health Minister Tony Ryall and the Minister for Science and Innovation Wayne Mapp on Wednesday congratulated the Institute of Environmental Science and Research... 

The Home Secretary’s plan to retain the DNA of people charged but then cleared of offences may breach human rights law, a group of MPs and peers have said. A “catch-all” discretionary power to allow police to hold the DNA of innocent people indefinitely for reasons of “national security” should also be scrapped, the Joint Committee on Human Rights [JCHR] said. Its report on the Protection... 

A new brain implant method enables monkeys to use a virtual arm controlled by the animal's brain. An international team of scientists has developed a new method of brain implantation which may enable the paralyzed to walk again in near future. According to naturenews, researchers at the Duke University in North Carolina have devised a brain implant procedure that enables monkeys to examine virtual... 

Former Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, holds up new iPod Nano after introducing it at an event in San Francisco, California in this September 7, 2005 picture. Steve Jobs, the billionaire co-founder of the technology giant, Apple Inc., has died at the age of 56, succumbing to pancreatic cancer, says a brief company statement. “We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today,” AFP quoted...