Washington, Dec 9 : They might be considered safe, but harm-reduction cigarettes can be even more toxic than traditional cigarettes, according to a new study.

Researchers from University of California - Riverside have found that smoke from the "light" or "low-yield" harm-reduction cigarettes retains toxicity, and that this can have an adverse impact on prenatal development.

"Many chemicals found in harm-reduction cigarette smoke have not been tested, and some are listed by manufacturers as safe," said lead researcher Prue Talbot and a professor of cell biology.

"But our tests on mice clearly show that these chemicals adversely affect reproduction and associated development processes.

Lahore, Dec. 9 : Pakistani authorities have placed restrictions on the movement of Maulana Masood Azhar, the chief of the outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), by confining him to his multi-storied concrete compound in the Model Town area of Bahawalpur.

The News quoted well-placed official sources as saying that Azhar’s activities have been restricted in the wake of the Indian Government’s recent demand that he be handed over to New Delhi.

Lahore, Dec. 9 : A Lashkar-e-Taiba coordinator has said that the arrest of at least 20 Jamaat-ud-Dawa activists, including the purported mastermind of the Mumbai terror attacks, Zaki-u-Rehman Lakhvi, on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, will not stop the militant outfit from continuing with its activities.

"We are still well-organized and active," the Washington Times quoted the Lashkar coordinator, as saying during an interaction at a safe house near Lahore.

The Lashkar fighter in Lahore said the group has "huge strength" and is concentrated in Pakistan''s tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan.

Recently, Prof Piers Steel, a Canadian academic came up with a mathematical equation to explain why people procrastinate.

The man has spent 10 years of his life studying why people put off until tomorrow what they could do today. Through his findings, he has arrived at the conclusion, that long held notions such as procrastinators are either perfectionists or just lazy, is entirely false. According to him, procrastinators actually suffer from a vice of their own - impulsiveness.  

Beijing  - China on Tuesday issued a draft agreement on a mechanism to verify North Korea's nuclear disarmament, as top nuclear negotiators from six countries entered into a second day of talks.

The delegates from the United States, China, Russia, Japan, North and South Korea were to review the draft and deliver their positions to China, South Korea's official Yonhap news agency said, quoting sources within the Seoul delegation.

"We will need to focus our discussions on the verification issue," South Korean chief negotiator Kim Sook said, but added that there had been no progress in the talks so far.

He was under the impression that North Korea was not ready for new discussions or a compromise, Kim added.

The government’s move to across-the-board cut of 4% in the ad valorem Cenvat rate, which will be effected for the balance part of the current fiscal on all products other than petroleum, is surely going to benefit the construction grade steel like TMT and structural steels, made by Steel Authority of India Ltd, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd and Tata Steel.