Washington, Oct 22 : In a collaborative study, UCLA and Dutch researchers have identified three new candidate genes for schizophrenia that may contribute to a better understanding of how the disease evolves.

For the study, Roel A. Ophoff, an assistant professor with the Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, and his colleagues examined the genetic makeup of 54 Dutch patients diagnosed with deficit schizophrenia, a particularly severe form of the disease that is both chronic and debilitating.

Specifically, they looked at a number of large but rare deletions and duplications in the genome of the patients, known as copy number variants, or CNVs.

Reykjavik/Oslo - Norway and Britain were Wednesday reported to be considering loans and other assistance to financially-troubled Iceland.

The economy of the North Atlantic nation of some 300,000 people has come under severe strain amid the global credit crunch.

A Norwegian delegation was heading for Iceland to discuss the situation and "how Norway can possibly help," Norwegian Transport and Communications Minister Liv Signe Navarsete told broadcaster NRK.

London, Oct 22 : French President Nicolas Sarkozy has threatened to take legal action against makers of his voodoo dolls, sold with instructions on how to stick pins in it.

Each body part of the doll, developed by K&K Company, contains controversial quotes related to the president.

These include his campaign slogan "work more to earn more", or "platform heels" – referring to the president''s shoes designed to gain a few inches in height.

On his groin is written "scum", which is used to describe young suburban crooks before the riots of 2005.

Sarkozy''s lawyer Thierry Herzog has asked the makers to "immediately cease all distribution of this doll".

National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) has decided to hike iron ore prices up to 40 per cent. NMDC is a leading state-run mining company in India. The revised prices would be implemented from Oct 1. The decision to hike ore prices is aimed to save the interests of buyers. It would insulate them from short-term market fluctuations. The steel prices may increase following the implementation of revised prices.

The chairman and Managing Director of NMDC, Rana Som said that the hike in prices is the need of the hour as production cost has increased manifolds. The public sector company can revise the ore prices as per the agreement with buyers.

London, Oct 22 : A scientist has claimed to have found concrete evidence that confirms the detection of methane gas on Mars and also identifies key sources of the gas.

The scientist in question is Michael Mumma, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, US.

While on Earth, methane is mostly biological in origin, on Mars, it could signal microbes living deep underground.

According to a report in Nature News, the latest work suggests that Martian methane is concentrated in both space and time.

At a handful of hotspots hundreds of kilometers across, plumes of methane bloom and dissipate in less than a year.

Harrisburg (Pennsylvania, US), Oct. 22 : Republican running mates John McCain and Sarah Palin have once again questioned Barack Obama''s readiness to lead the country in the wake of the latter’s running mate Joe Biden saying that Obama would face a "generated crisis."

"We don''t want a president who invites testing from the world at a time when our economy is in crisis and Americans are already fighting in two wars," McCain said Tuesday in Harrisburg, Pennyslyvania.