TopNews

Washington, Feb 11 : NASA's new study has revealed that increasing Antarctica's sea ice cannot cover up for Arctic's declining sea ice.

As a whole, the planet has been shedding sea ice at an average annual rate of 13,500 square miles (35,000 square kilometers) since 1979, the equivalent of losing an area of sea ice larger than the state of Maryland every year.

Claire Parkinson, climate scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, said that even though Antarctic sea ice reached a new record maximum this past September, global sea ice was still decreasing because the decreases in Arctic sea ice far exceed the increases in Antarctic sea ice.

Washington, Feb 11 : SpaceX's Dragon cargo spacecraft has splashed down in Pacific Ocean from International Space Station (ISS).

The Dragon spacecraft will be taken by ship to Long Beach, where some cargo will be removed and returned to NASA. Dragon will then be prepared for a return trip to SpaceX's test facility in McGregor, Texas, for processing.

Flight controllers in the Mission Control Center at Johnson robotically positioned Dragon safely away from its docking port recently, where it was released for its deorbit maneuver, sending it on its way to a parachute-assisted splashdown.

New Delhi: Reliance Industries has slapped an arbitration notice challenging oil ministry's decision to take away 814 square kilometer of its eastern offshore KG-D6 area that contained five gas discoveries. As per norm of giving up non-discovery area, RIL had in 2013 offered to give up 5,385 sq km out of a total 7,645 sq km area in Krishna Godavari basin KG-D6 block. But the ministry on October 30, 2013 ordered 6,198.88 sq km of total area to be taken away as the time allocated for producing from these had expired.

RIL on January 14 challenged this order stating the 814 sq km of additional area that the ministry had taken away contained five gas discoveries holding close to 1 trillion cubic feet of reserves.

New Delhi, Feb 11 : External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday said that India's spirit is unity amidst the immense diversity and traditions of non-violence and tolerance.

"What is this spirit of India? I believe it is our unity amidst the immense diversity of India, it is our traditions of non-violence and tolerance. It is the age old concepts of Vasudhaiva kutumbakam (the world is a family) and Sarva dharma sambhav (equal respect for all faiths)," said Swaraj.

"It is adherence to these ideas and ideals which has made India the oldest continuous civilization in the world, with a history going back five thousand years. Most of the old civilizations of the world are dead and gone, but India has continued to maintain, developed and enrich its cultural heritage," she added.

Washington, Feb 11 : Samsung has responded in a blog post denying the recent controversy about the company's poorly worded privacy policy that warns that conversations can be transmitted to a third party through Voice Recognition, saying that "Samsung Smart TVs Do Not Monitor Living Room Conversations".

The company recognises that it could have used a clearer language as it was clumsy, reported the Verge.

The warning however, applied only to those viewers who control their Samsung Smart TV using its voice activation feature.

It was reported that the TV sets may be listening to people in the room to try to spot commands queries that are issued via the remote.

London, Feb 11 : A new study has claimed that health benefits of alcohol may have been over-exaggerated from the reality.

Some studies have suggested that, compared with non-drinkers, moderate consumption of alcohol may protect against cardiovascular disease and bring mortality benefits.

But this association is contentious, with some arguing that the protective effects of light drinking may be exaggerated by "selection biases" in studies that could skew results.

There is also concern about increasing alcohol consumption among older people and risk of alcohol related problems due to impaired metabolism of alcohol with age.