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Jammu, Jan 14 : The Indian Army Monday lodged a strong protest with Pakistan over breach of the ceasefire between the two countries and the killing of two Indian soldiers at the brigadier-level flag meeting on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district.

Hyderabad, Jan 14 : The streets of Hyderabad looked almost deserted Monday as thousands of families visited their home towns for Sankranti, the Telugu harvest festival.

The intersections, usually chock-a-block with vehicular traffic, looked empty and the city roads breathed easy as fewer buses and private vehicles plied.

An estimated 2.5 million people have returned to their native places in different parts of Andhra Pradesh to join parents or other family members for the festival.

Warsaw, Jan 14 : A cutting edge new tool for identifying hair and eye colour from forensic samples can also be used to reconstruct details from ancient human remains, says an European study.

For instance, the HIrisPlex DNA analysis system was able to reconstruct hair and eye colour from teeth up to 800 years old, including that of the Polish general Wladyslaw Sikorski (1881 to 1943) confirming his blue eyes and blond hair.

New Delhi, Jan 14 : In a move to boost investor sentiment, the Indian government Monday deferred the implementation of the controversial General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR), meant to prevent tax avoidance through foreign investments, by two years to April 1, and exempted non-resident Indians in foreign institutional investors (FIIs) from its purview.

Announcing this, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said the government had accepted the major recommendations of the Parthasarthi Shome committee, appointed last year to look into the concerns of foreign investors, who are against the GAAR.

Solang Valley (Himachal Pradesh), Jan 14 : "Oh god! Please let it snow heavily tonight," said John Kennedy, an Australian skier. He and his fellow skiers have been camping in the western Himalayas awaiting a big snowfall.

But organisers of skiing in Solang, 13 km from the tourist hill station of Manali, say that after two bumper seasons, the slopes are totally bereft of snow cover this year.

Film: "David"; Music Directors: Dub Sharma, Bramfatura, Anirudh Ravichander, Maatibaani, Modern Mafia, Remo Fernandes and Prashant Pillai; Singers: Siddharth Basrur, Remo Fernandes, Vikram, Anirudh Ravichander, Karthik, Prashant Pillai, Naresh Iyer, Shweta Pandit, Joyshanti, Nirali Kartik and Sanjeev Thomas; Lyricists: Mohanrajan, Remo Fernandes, Yugabharati, Joyshanti and V. Elango; Rating: ***1/2