London, Dec 8 : Taking a major step towards creation of quantum networks, physicists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have made a new record for the length of time that quantum information can be stored in and retrieved from an ensemble of very cold atoms.

Although the information remains usable for just milliseconds, even that short lifetime should be enough to allow transmission of data from one quantum repeater to another on an optical network.

The new record is of 7 milliseconds for rubidium atoms stored in a dipole optical trap, while the previous record for storage time was 32 microseconds- a difference of more than two orders of magnitude.

Washington, Dec 8 : New dating of an important hominid site in Ethiopia has suggested that the road to advanced cognition in modern humans was a long and winding one, and they developed their greater intelligence gradually.

About 1.7 million years ago in Africa, Homo erectus, an ancestor of modern humans, started using large hand axes and cleavers.

This know-how spread to Asia and Europe and remained cutting-edge technology for well over a million years.

London, Dec 8 : Wikipedia users are enraged after many UK Internet providers decided to block a page on the online encyclopaedia showing an image of a naked girl.

The blocked page shows an album cover of German heavy metal band Scorpions.

Internet providers blocked the controversial page after online watchdog the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) warned them its picture might be illegal.

However, some volunteers who run Wikipedia claimed that the foundation had no authority to censor one of the web''s most popular sites.

New Delhi, Dec 5 : India and Russia signed a landmark agreement on civil nuclear cooperation today.

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said while addressing a joint press conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in New Delhi today that Moscow would build four additional atomic reactors in the Koodankulam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu.

The deal will allow Russia to build more reactors at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant and plants in other parts of the country.

London/Strasbourg - A ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg condemning Britain's policy of storing DNA samples from innocent people was described as "disappointing" by the government in London Thursday.

The court said the DNA and fingerprints of two British men who had no previous convictions should not have been kept on a national database by police in Yorkshire, northern England.

The judges said keeping the information constituted a "breach of rights" and "could not be regarded as necessary in a democratic society."

London, Dec 4 : A member of a jihadist forum has urged supporters to wage a ''YouTube Invasion'' by uploading propaganda videos to the Google-owned website.

The SITE Intelligence Group, a US-based monitoring service, reported that the call was made last week by a member of al-Faloja, a password-protected jihadist forum, using the name Omar Abdul Hakim.

Noting that the popular video-sharing website is watched by millions and is even used by US president-elect Barack Obama, Hakim wrote that those wishing to wage jihad should use the popular website "to shame the crusaders by publishing clips of videos showing their losses.”