London - The British economy has shrunk for the first time in 16 years, dropping 0.5 per cent in the July-September quarter, the Office for National Statistics reported Friday.
Paris - Anxiety about corporate earnings and the expected announcement that OPEC will cut oil production have driven French shares sharply lower on Thursday.
In mid-morning trading, the Paris Bourse's CAC 40 index was down 6.09 per cent, at 3,109.09, with 39 of 40 listed stocks losing ground.
France's two large car makers, Renault and Peugeot, were among the biggest losers, giving up 16.41 and 14.45 per cent, respectively, because the global car market is screeching to a halt.
London, Oct 24 : Scientists are developing an optical distress beacon for astronauts working outside their spacecraft, which would enable their screams for help to be heard in space in case of an emergency.
According to a report in New Scientist, the device could provide an alert if an astronaut is unable to speak or radio links fail.
The distress beacon will be attached to sensors monitoring heartbeat or breathing, and will have LEDs visible up to 800 meters away.
“The astronaut might even flash them to send messages in Morse code,” said Sarah Harris of Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California, who is developing the device with staff at the Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California.
Washington, Oct 24 : In a new study, scientists have established that hypnosis can trigger "synesthetic" experiences – where one sense triggers the involuntary use of another – within an average br
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Friday rejected a Breach of Privilege notice against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The notice on Breach of privilege was given on the issue of Indo-US nuclear deal.
But after that the house witnessed a war of words broke out between speaker and two members of Left parties. And Chatterjee left the proceeding in the mid way of the discussion all of a sudden. The two left leaders include CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta and CPI (M) leader Basudev Acharya.
Railway Minister Lalu Yadav requested Chatterjee not to leave the house, but upset Chatterjee left the house and said that the Left leaders were deliberately making allegations against the Chair.