Ottawa/New York  - Canadian liberal opposition leader Stephane Dione said late Monday he is ready to resign as soon as a successor is found, as his party accused him of having failed to successfully counter the ruling Conservative Party.

Dion failed to prevent Prime Minister Stephen Harper from forcing Canada's parliament into a seven-week recess to stave off a no-confidence vote against his minority government.

The Liberals and two other opposition parties joined forces to form a coalition government to replace Harper's Conservative minority government.

Washington, December 9 : Experiments on mice conducted by Purdue University scientists have shown that the animals raised in cages may relieve stress with behaviours associated with their counterparts in the wild.

The researchers say that their findings indicate that allowing laboratory mice to express such behaviours may provide them with animals that act and respond more naturally,

and, thereby, make research data more reliable.

Joseph Garner, assistant professor of animal sciences, highlighted the fact that lab mice lived in sterile environments controlled by humans, which could be stressful for

them because they did not have much control.

Belgaum (Karnataka), Dec 9: Indian and Chinese soldiers underwent practical demonstrations and lectures on counter terror and insurgency in the mountainous terrains of Belgaum on Monday.

The first-ever Sino-Indian military combat exercise on Indian soil to counter terror and insurgency began here on December 6. The exercise will take place from December
6 to 14.

Commencing from the basics of surveillance, security of posts, search and destroy operations many other counter terror operations were demonstrated by soldiers of India and China.

Contingent Leader of the People’s Liberation Army, Senior Colonel Qin Xiang You interacted with the Indian soldiers, and said that there were many things in common between both the armies.

Islamabad, Dec. 9: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that the menace of terrorism is affecting his country as much as India, and added that it would be a futile exercise to pin the blame just on Pakistan.

Washington, Dec 9 : Promotional strategy, which involves frequent price cuts, can actually work against even for the most popular and well-respected brands, according to a study.

Titled "A Dynamic Model of Brand Choice When Price and Advertising Signal Product Quality," the study was conducted by Tulin Erdem of NYU; Michael P. Keane of the University of Technology Sidney, Australia and Arizona State University; and Baohong Sun of Carnegie Mellon University.

According to the study, recurring price promotions that reduce the perceived average price of a brand can feed back and adversely impact perceived quality.

Washington, Dec 9 : In an effort to control violence in children at an early age, Universite de Montreal has launched a daycare program that can help aggressive kids avoid being type-cast as problematic.

The daycare program started by Jacinthe Guevremont aims at preventing developmental problems among kids.

As part of the program, early childhood educators try to foster calm by encouraging kids to express their anger and frustration in more constructive ways.

"It''s really important to intervene early – before violent behaviour is too ingrained. Violent behavioural problems that persist in early childhood are good indicators of school drop-outs and future delinquency," said Guevremont.