London, Oct 24 : Stephen Hawking, renowned scientist, will retire as Cambridge University’s Professor of Mathematics on October 1, 2009.

According to a report in the Telegraph, Hawking will continue his work as usual at Cambridge University as Emeritus Lucasian Professor at the university, an honorary title, after he vacates his position next year.

A spokeswoman explained it was University policy for professors to “pass the baton” in the year they reach the age of 67.

She said that Hawking’s diary is already booked up to 2012.

“The post is retiring but Hawking isn’t,” the spokeswoman said. “Nothing will change. It is merely a formality,” she added.

A recent survey by an insurance company, ‘Sheila’s Wheels’ revealed that women wearing heels while driving cars stand a chance of risking their lives. It was reported that out of every five female car drivers, four are at risk due to inappropriate footwear they endorse while driving.

The company questioned around 750 women out of which 75 admitted that they have experienced accident or a “near miss” as their footwear slipped or got under the pedals and made driving difficult. A quarter of them agreed that before they started to drive even though they believed that the shoes they are wearing are uneasy denied of changing them as they felt it wouldn’t bother them that much.

Gorgeous Katrina Kaif, who is amongst the top rated actress, is the talk of the tinsel town owing to the popularity she is gaining via the publicity promotion for her next film. Subhash Ghai’s ‘Yuvvraaj’ features the elegant beauty together with Salman, Anil Kapoor and Zayed Khan in the lead. However, Katrina seems to be the focus with only her being pictured on the hoardings.

London, October 24 : An American doctor has estimated that the Republican presidential candidate John McCain has a six per cent risk of dying of a skin cancer recurrence each year, about 22 per cent over four years.

"There is a one-in-four to one-in-five chance that he would not survive a first term," New Scientist magazine quoted John Alam of a Cambridge, Massachusetts, as saying.

His estimate is higher than that of McCain''s physician at the Mayo Clinic, who had once said that the Senator had a less than 10 per cent chance of deadly relapse.

New York, Oct 24 : Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is showing surprising strength among portions of the political coalition that returned George W. Bush to the White House four years ago.

A cross section of support that, if it continues for Obama through Election Day, would exceed that of Bill Clinton in 1992, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News polls.

Underscoring his increasing strength in the final phase of the campaign, Obama led his rival John McCain among groups that voted for President Bush four years ago: Those with incomes greater than 50,000 dollar a year; married women; suburbanites and white Catholics.

Beijing - The largest-ever gathering of Asian and European leaders opened on Friday to discuss how to respond to the global financial crisis and combat climate change.

Talks on the financial crisis are expected to be "very intense" between leaders of the 27 European Union member states and 16 Asian nations at the seventh biannual Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Beijing, Serge Abou, the EU's ambassador to China, told reporters earlier.

EU officials said separate "clusters" of discussions were planned on banking and financial systems, and that the EU nations hoped the meeting would promote trade talks between the two continents.