Washington, Nov 12: Researchers have cited ‘arid aquaculture’ as an effective potential alternative livelihood for people living in desertified parts of the world’s expanding drylands.

The option came up as part of a research by the United Nations University (UNU), the International Centre on Agricultural Research in Dryland Areas (ICARDA), and UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Program.

Drylands constitute more than 40 percent of the global land area and provide a wide range of fundamental ecosystem goods and services. They are home to nearly a third of the global population, about 2 billion in all, over 90 percent of whom live in developing countries.

New Delhi, Nov 12 : The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) today successfully flight-tested state-of-art 600 km range canisterised surface-to-surface missile system named ‘Shourya’.

The missile was test fired from ITR Balasore in Orissa at 11:25 a. m. This developmental flight trial of Shourya missile system is a part of ongoing technology development work undertaken by DRDO.

The Missile system has a unique feature of simplicity of operation and maintenance.

Paris - Segolene Royal, the defeated Socialist Party candidate in last year's French presidential election, is expected to announce later Wednesday that she is a candidate to replace her former partner as party chief, French media reported.

The party will elect a successor to its current head, Francois Hollande, during its next congress, which is due to begin Friday in the city of Reims.

Royal's heavy defeat at the hands of President Nicolas Sarkozy in May 2007 threw the Socialists into disarray, with many of the party's old guard, such as former prime minister Lionel Jospin, harshly criticizing the campaign she ran and her attempt to forge an alliance with centrist Francois Bayrou.

Los Angeles - Al Horford was unstoppable and the high-flying Atlanta Hawks remained unbeaten in the NBA.

Horford had a career-high 27 points, 17 rebounds and six blocks as the Hawks rolled to their sixth straight victory, 113-108 over the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night.

"Everybody knows we're shorthanded with Josh Smith (ankle injury) being out," teammate Mo Evans said. "And for us to be undefeated after six, Al was huge."

The Hawks are off to best start since opening the 1997-98 season with 11 straight wins, but it's no surprise to Hawks guard Mike Bibby.

New Delhi, Nov 12 : A MiG-21 (Trainer) aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed near Chabua village of Tinsukia district of Assam around 10:35 a. m. today.