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London, June 22 : Experiments on mice suggest that having grey hair may tender protection against cancer, say researchers.

Emi Nishimura, of Tokyo Medical and Dental University in Japan, points out that melanocytes are the cells that produce the pigments that colour hair, and that their numbers are kept topped up by stem cells.

According to Nishimura, hair goes grey when the number of stem cells in hair follicles declines.

The researcher says that a new study conducted at the university has now revealed what causes this decline in mice.

Berlin  - German business confidence rose in June, economists expect a key survey to be released Monday to say, with the boardrooms in Europe's biggest economy now believing that the global recession has started to loosen its grip on the nation.

In a major test of the economic mood in Europe, the closely- watched Ifo business confidence index is foreseen edging up to 85 points in June to record its third consecutively monthly rise.

Cotabato City, Philippines  - At least 10 Muslim secessionist rebels were killed in a clash with government troops in the southern Philippines, a regional army spokesman said Monday.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Ponce said 22 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels and two soldiers were also wounded in the fighting late Sunday in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao province, 960 kilometres south of Manila.

Ponce said hundreds of residents in the area have fled their homes for fear of being caught in the crossfire.

Washington/Seoul  - Most developing economies will slip into recession this year amid a global financial crisis that has prompted wealthy investors to pull their money out of projects for the poor, the World Bank warned on Monday.

The developing world will grow 1.2 per cent this year after growing 5.9 per cent in 2008. Excluding China and India, which have held up relatively well in the ongoing recession, developing economies will shrink by 1.6 per cent in 2009, the World Bank said.

In a shocking development, authorities at the Guru Govind Singh Government Hospital, Jamnagar, have stuck a sticker labeled ‘HIV+’ on the forehead of a 27-year-old pregnant woman.

Not only this, the hospital staff made the young woman paraded different wards of the hospital in front of her six-month-old daughter and mother-in-law on Saturday.

Bangkok  - Communist Laos, buffeted by the global economic crisis, considers revising its foreign investment law to attract more companies to the country, radio reports said Monday.

Lao Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh, in an opening speech to the National Assembly, painted a grim economic picture for the under-developed nation of less than 6 million people, Radio Laos said in a broadcast monitored in Bangkok.

Bouasone noted that exports had fallen this year, tax collection was down and unemployment was up.