Paris - At least 60 journalists and one media assistant were killed while carrying out their work this year, the press watchdog Reporters Without Borders said Tuesday.

Some 673 journalists were arrested, 29 were kidnapped and 929 were physically attacked or threatened, the Paris-based organization said in its Press Freedom Roundup for 2008.

Iraq remained the most dangerous country for journalists, with 15 killed this year, followed by Pakistan, 7 killed, and the Philippines, where 6 media representatives lost their lives.

Paris  - Nearly 200 years after the birth of Louis Braille, the alphabet of raised dots he created to overcome his lack of sight continues to touch the lives of blind people everywhere.

Braille was born on January 4, 1809, near Paris. The son of a saddler, he injured his eye with an awl when he was three years old. The resulting infection spread to both eyes and he was soon blind.

Despite his blindness, he continued to attend a regular village school until the age of 10, when he enrolled at the Royal Institution for Blind Youth in Paris.

London, Dec 26: French actor Gerard Depardieu has a unique way of ensuring that his holiday turkey is delicious - he caresses and talks to the bird before cooking it.

According to Depardieu, who owns La Fontaine Gaillon restaurant in Paris, the best way to prepare the perfect fowl is to relax the turkey, reports the Daily Express.

The star tells Decanter magazine, "Before killing something, I always talk to it. An animal that''s been caressed before it''s killed dies peacefully, and its muscles don''t contract with adrenalin.

Paris  - The Paris f

Recent research has revealed that presence of a common genetic variation in young heart attack survivors increases their risk to die or have a serious heart problem while taking the blood thinner Plavix. Research team added that this drug was less effective for these people and also raised the risk of blood clots for those carrying the genetic change that had heart stents implanted.

Paris - The best strategy to make peace in the Mideast is to encourage the rapid economic development of the Palestinian people, former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview published Friday in the French daily Le Figaro.

Asked if he agreed with the withdrawal of Israel from most of the West Bank, the leader of the hardline Likud party said, "The method that consists in withdrawing from territories without concessions has only led to bringing Islamist movements linked to Iran, the Lebanese Hezbollah and Hamas into Gaza."