Srinagar-Leh highway, Mar20 : Border Roads Organisation (BRO) officials are toiling hard to reopen the Leh- Srinagar highway in Kashmir, which remains snow-blocked for six months.

"Leh remains cut-off from Kashmir for six months. We want to open the highway as soon as possible so that Leh and Kashmir could stay connected," said Abdul Rasheed, a BRO worker.

The work which had started on March 9 is expected to be over within a month.

The highway linking Srinagar with Ladakh region, passes through Zojila, one of the highest mountain passes of the world.

London - Car production in Britain dropped by 59 per cent in February compared with the same month in 2008, official figures showed Friday.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said just 59,777 cars were made in February 2009 as vehicle companies cut back production.

"The large fall in February's vehicle production is a direct result of weak demand and the need to protect the highly-skilled workforce and valuable industrial capability in the UK automotive sector," said SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt.

Madrid - Spain's decision to withdraw its peacekeepers from Kosovo was Friday expected to be followed by an increase of Spanish troops in Afghanistan, press reports said.

Spain could increase its contingent of nearly 800 soldiers in Afghanistan with up to 500 more, senior military sources were quoted by the daily El Mundo as saying.

Washington, Mar 20 : After a chaotic weekend, actress Lindsay Lohan is now trying to get back on track, and her fellow actors Stephen and Danny Baldwin will be aiding her in achieving her goal.

Lohan, 22, is seeking professional guidance to put her back on a positive path, and, as per a source close to the family, she will temporarily be in a “therapeutic environment” organized by the brothers.

Johannesburg - Around 30 South Africans are arrested every month in Brazil on drug smuggling charges - a huge increase in the past two years as South Africa emerges as a new hub in the global drug smuggling business.

Friends/Family of South African Detainees Abroad (FOSADA) sounded the alarm Friday over what it called a dramatic increase in the number of South Africans detained in Brazil on suspicion of being drug mules.

Washington, March 20 : A team of scientists has confirmed the origin of supernovae as being produced from dying red supergiant stars.

The scientists are from the Dark Cosmology Centre at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen and from Queens University, Belfast.

A star is a large ball of hot gas and in its incredibly hot interior hydrogen atoms combine to form helium, which subsequently forms carbon, other heavier elements and finally iron.

When all the atoms in the centre have turned to iron the fuel is depleted and the star dies.