Toronto, July 22 - Severe flu doubles the odds of your developing Parkinson's disease later in life, say researchers.

However, the reverse holds true for those who got infected with red measles as children. They are 35 percent less likely to develop Parkinson's, a nervous system disorder marked by slowness of movement, shaking, stiffness, and in the later stages, loss of balance.

The findings from the University of British Columbia (UBC's) School of Population and Public Health and the Pacific Parkinson's Research Centre are based on interviews with 403 Parkinson's patients and 405 healthy people in Canada.

Toronto, July 5 - How does the worlds tiniest mammalian diver survive icy waters to catch its prey? By doing an instant warm-up exercise before diving into cold water, say researchers.

This behaviour is unexpected because lower body temperatures enable diving mammals to stay underwater for longer. Heating up doesn't make sense as animals use up oxygen more quickly when they are warmer, says Kevin Campbell, who led the study.

Toronto, June 20 - Toddlers less than two years old find great joy in giving treats to others than receiving one themselves, says a new psychological study.

"People tend to assume that toddlers are naturally selfish," said Lara Aknin, who co-authored the study with University of British Columbia (UBC) colleagues Kiley Hamlin and Elizabeth Dunn, both professors of psychology.

During the study, each toddler received some treats, such as Goldfish crackers. A few minutes later, the toddler was asked to give one of these treats away to a puppet, the journal Public Library of Science ONE reported.

Toronto, March 9 - Countries strictly upholding cultural norms are more likely on frown on women as leaders - unless those norms support equal opportunities for both sexes, says a new study.

"Cultural tightness can prevent the emergence of women leaders because tighter cultures may make a society's people more resistant to changing the traditionally-held practice that placed men in leadership roles," said Soo Min Toh, professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.

Toronto, Feb 7 - Corporal punishment makes children more aggressive and can harm them in the long term, says a study.

"Virtually without exception, these studies found that physical punishment was associated with higher levels of aggression against parents, siblings, peers and spouses," write study co-authors Joan Durrant and Ron Ensom.

Durant and Ensom from University of Manitoba and Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, respectively, based their findings on analysis of a number of researches over the past 20 years.

Toronto, Sep 21 - Electrically tickling a specific brain part stimulates production of new cells that enhance memory and cognition, says a new Canadian research.

"DBS (deep brain stimulation) has been quite effective for the treatment of... disorders, such as Parkinson's disease (and other neurologic and psychiatric conditions)," said study author Paul Frankland of Sick Kids hospital.

Throughout life, new cells are born in parts of the hippocampus, the brain's learning and memory centre, The Journal of Neuroscience reports.

The experiment was conducted in adult mice.

Toronto, Aug 10 - With rioters in Britain using BlackBerry to direct fellow looters to spread mayhem in cities across the country, Blackberry maker Research In Motion (RIM) has promised to cooperate with British authorities.

The riots erupted last week after police shot dead 29-year-old Mark Duggan who in last message to his girlfriend from his BlackBerry said: "The Feds are following me.''

Since then, rioters have made extensive use of BlackBerry to send encrypted messages to mobs to riot, the Globe and Mail said in a report from London.

"If you're down for making money, we're about to go hard in east London," read BlackBerry message from one looter, the report said.

Toronto, Aug 9 - The continuing market mayhem Monday puzzled economists who wondered why investors are seeking refuge in the very US assets that have been downgraded by Standard and Poor's.

"It's a very perverse behaviour to run to the asset that had the downgrade. What it tells you is that this is fear. There is no other way of describing it,'' Craig Alexander, chief economist at Canada's top TD Bank Financial Group, said of the continuing market slide Monday.

Economists wondered why investors are rushing to the investments like US Treasury bills that have been downgraded by the ratings agency.

Toronto, Aug 6 - Apple now tops smart phone rankings while BlackBerry has slipped to the fourth spot, confirmed the latest data from the US analyst firm International Data Corporation (IDC).

Apple had claimed the global top spot by shipping 20.3 million iPhones in its quarterly results released in the third week of July.

In its Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker released Thursday, the Massachusetts-based IDC said, "The smartphone market crowned a new leader in 2Q11, and its name is Apple.''

Toronto, July 24 - A Pakistani man was arrested in Canada Saturday for war crimes and terror links.

Arshad Muhammad, who was arrested from the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, has reportedly been linked to a Pakistan-based Islamist organisation.

The 42-year-old man, who has been evading arrest for years, was nabbed after police spotted him in a convenience store in Mississauga which is home to a huge population of Indians and Pakistanis.

Toronto, July 19 - Will rival research engines do to Google what Facebook did to MySpace?

That's possible after US antitrust regulators last month started investigations against the search engine for abusing its dominant market position, say experts. The US action is the second antitrust investigation against the search engine after the EU launched first such action against Google last year.

Toronto, July 19 - Shares of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) slipped to almost $25 Monday after rumours that the Canadian wireless giant is planning to discontinue its WiFi-only PlayBook tablet.

Launched in April, the first BlackBerry tablet has failed to make its presence felt in the tablet market, leave alone challenge the leader iPad from Apple. The RIM tablet sold just 500,000 units in the first six weeks of its launch, compared to one million iPads sold by Apple within the first month of its launch April 2010.

RIM Monday dismissed reports about stopping the production of the PlayBook, calling them "pure fiction".

Toronto, July 12 : As BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) co-CEOs face jittery investors Tuesday at the annual meeting amid the company's declining market share, Apple has stepped up efforts to steal BlackBerry's corporate client base.

Corporate executives and leaders favour BlackBerry because of its security encryption.

But the onslaught from Apple's iPhone and Google Android devices has pushed BlackBerry from the top to the third slot in the US smart phone market in a matter of months.

As the Canadian wireless giant struggles to replace its aging handsets, Apple has taken aim at its enterprise base by targeting them with a back-page ad in The Economist.

Toronto, July 11 - Air India Kanishka victims' families have rejected the Canadian government's offer of $24,000 each for the 1985 bombing that killed all 329 people on board the plane near the Irish coast.

The Kanishka flight 182 to Delhi from Montreal was blown off mid-air by a bomb planted by Vancouver-based Khalistani radicals to avenge the Indian army action at the Golden Temple in June 1984.

The Canadian government announced the $24,000 ex-gratia during a meeting with families - as recommended by the Air India inquiry commission, headed by former Canadian chief justice John Major, which submitted its report last year.

Toronto, July 5 - Friday namaz prayers at a school in the Toronto suburb of North York have angered Hindu advocacy groups here.

The noon-time prayers for 400 Muslim students of the Valley Park Middle School were introduced last November.

Angry Hindu advocacy groups want the 40-minute prayers, which are conducted by an imam specially brought from a mosque, to be stopped immediately.

The local Canadian Hindu Advocacy, led by Ron Banerjee, is roping in various Hindu organizations to hold protests outside the school to pressure management to stop the Friday prayers. "This is alarming and unacceptable. We respect the separation of church and state," Banerjee has said in interviews to the media.