Islamabad - A moderate 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck north-western Pakistan on Monday, meteorological authorities said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
The earthquake, at the depth of 140 kilometres, hit at 8:37 am (0337 GMT), the US Geological Survey said. It was centred 106 kilometres north-west of the town of Chitral.
Pakistan Meteorological Department measured the jolts at 5.7 on the Richter scale, while local authorities did not immediately reported any casualties or structural damages.
Pakistan's north-western regions actively experience seismic activity and a 6.4-magnitude earthquake in late October killed more than 250 in the impoverished Balochistan province.
Melbourne, December 29: While Barack Obama has already made history by being the first African American to be elected U. S. President, his aides are wondering whether his favourite spot for vacationing Hawaii will go down in history as a place to host most of his presidential holidays.
Software giant Microsoft has been asked to lay off around 9,100 employees (around 10%) to tell the market that profits are more significant than revenue growth in difficult times.
In a report on Microsoft, Brokerage firm Oppenheimer & Co’s analyst Brad Reback stated that such layoff exercise would be a profitable move for the company.
In his report for the institutional investors of Microsoft, Mr. Reback said that cutting down the staff by 10% would increase company’s earnings per share (EPS) by about 10%.
Wellington - A man alleged to be the head of an international drug trafficking syndicate asked an Australian court Monday for anonymity, saying he feared for his life, news reports said.
The 41-year-old man was arrested at Amsterdam Airport in December 2007 after three years on the run and recently extradited to Australia from the Netherlands, ABC radio reported.
He appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court charged with conspiring to import cocaine using a large network of couriers who Australian police said concealed the drug internally.
Police alleged the man headed a drug trafficking syndicate that operated in Australia, the Netherlands and Canada.
London, Dec 29: New Scientist has made a list of the most extreme news stories that it presented in the year 2008.
So, the most extreme new stories in the field of science and technology in 2008 are: -
Roundest and shortest: In July, an international team of craftsmen unveiled an unusual pair of balls - believed to be the roundest objects in the world. The silicon balls are designed to each contain a near-identical number of silicon atoms, and become a new way to define the kilogram.
The shortest ever pulse of light, just 80 attoseconds (billionths of a billionth of a second) long, was created in June 2008. That's short enough to act like a kind of superfast flashgun to study the movement of electrons around large atoms.
Indian equities belled the day (Monday, Dec 29) on a weak note because of negative global cues. 
Melbourne, December 29: While Barack Obama has already made history by being the first African American to be elected U. S. President, his aides are wondering whether his favourite spot for vacationing Hawaii will go down in history as a place to host most of his presidential holidays.
Software giant Microsoft has been asked to lay off around 9,100 employees (around 10%) to tell the market that profits are more significant than revenue growth in difficult times.
