London, Jan 14 : In a new research, scientists have claimed to detect evidence for granite highlands on Venus in data almost two decades old, which suggests that the planet may have once been far more like Earth, with oceans and continents.

According to a report in Nature News, the data includes nighttime infrared emissions coming from the surface of Venus, which was detected by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in 1990.

Amethi, Jan. 14 : Congress General Secretary and MP Rahul Gandhi and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband will arrive here this afternoon.

Earlier, Miliband had expressed his desire to see the rural developmental activities in India during a meeting with Rahul Gandhi some time ago in the United Kingdom.

Rahul had invited him to visit Amethi where several schemes pertaining to cooperatives, self-help groups and healthcare have been launched in the recent years.

London, January 14: American theatre and film director Tom O''Horgan, well known for creating hit hippie musical Hair, has passed away. He was 84.

The director, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, breathed his last on Sunday at his home in Venice, Florida.

The cause of his death has not been revealed as yet.

O''Horgan left no immediate survivors, reports the Daily Express.

O'Horgan was also revered for making such Broadway plays as Jesus Christ Superstar, Lenny and Inner City.

Islamabad  - Eighteen people were killed when a passenger van plunged into a deep ravine in north-west Pakistan, media reports said Wednesday.

The bus carrying 18 passengers and the driver fell 100 metres off the mountain road in the Dankoo area in Buner district of North West Frontier Province on Tuesday night.

According to the Urdu-language Aaj TV news, the only survivor was an eight-year-old boy who suffered minor injuries.

Bad weather was the main cause of the accident, the report quoted police as saying.

Hong Kong - The Hong Kong pop star at the centre of a sex photos scandal is to testify against the man accused of downloading pictures from his computer in Canada, a news report said Wednesday.

Edison Chen, 28, has refused to return to Hong Kong for court proceedings surrounding the pictures showing him with a string of naked young starlets that circulated on the internet early last year.

Detroit  - US carmakers have to walk a very fine line at this year's Detroit auto show, keenly aware of the economic realities that hovered over what is usually a glittering affair.

After pleaded with the US Congress for emergency loans to stay alive, US manufacturers are being careful to avoid the kinds of expensive-looking exhibits that could smack of hypocrisy - and a waste of taxpayer money.