Taipei - Taiwan stocks rose nearly 4 per cent Friday on an overnight rally on Wall Street and in expectation of expanded Taiwan-China exchanges.

The Taiex index soared 187.02 points, or 3.99 per cent, to close at 4,870.6.

Analysts attributed the surge not only to Thursday's rally on Wall Street, where the three major indices rose more than 2 per cent, but also to China's promise to ease restrictions on mainlanders visiting Taiwan.

The Orissa government has ordered for Crime Branch enquiry to the death of Father Bernard Digal. Father Diggal was allegedly attacked in Kandhamal and died in Chennai in Last Tuesday.

A criminal case in this regard had been registered in a Police Station at state Capital Bhubaneswar. Father Joseph Kalathil, the vicar-general of the archbishop's house in Bhubaneswar has lodged the complaint, said police DG M.M Praharaj. Father Digal will be creamated today near St.Vincent Church. A post-mortem was conducted at the Capital Hospital here after the deceased's body was flown from Chennai via Mumbai.

Taipei - Former vice premier Chiou I-jen has been arrested on accusations he embezzled a half-million US dollars during his time as Taiwan's intelligence chief, court officials said Friday.

"When he was secretary general of the National Security Council in 2004, the defendant asked the Foreign Ministry for 500,000 US dollars to finance a secret diplomatic mission, which actually was already completed with no more financial need," said Taipei District Court Judge Huang Chun-ming.

Ace veteran Bollywood superstar Rajesh Khanna will be seen in a flick called ‘Wafaa’ along side hot Pakistani beauty Saara Khan.

And thats not all, the actor has also indulged in bold, intimate bedroom scenes with Saara who is half his age.

Washington, Oct 31: Women who gain more than 40 pounds (18 kg) during their pregnancies are nearly twice as likely to have a heavy baby, suggests a new study.

The study was conducted by the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, which included more than 40,000 women and their babies.

The study has been published in the November issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Washington, Oct 31: A new study by genographic scientists has found that as many as one in 17 men in the Mediterranean basin may have a Phoenician as a direct male-line ancestor.

Part of the National Geographic and IBM’s Genographic Project scientific consortium, the study has led to the development of a new analytical method for detecting the subtle genetic impact of historical population migrations.

Its first application has been to reveal the genetic legacy of the Phoenicians, an intriguing and mysterious first-millennium B. C. trading empire.