London, Nov. 13 : The Russian Parliament has announced that it would rush through a constitutional amendment that could see Vladimir Putin return to the presidency within weeks.

According to The Telegraph, the State Duma has said that it would meet on Friday to pass legislation that could allow Putin to return to the Kremlin for 12 years.

London, Nov 13 : A new study by researchers the University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada, has found that female redback spiders kill and eat partners that demand quick sex in place of long-term courtship.

The study also revealed that a little bit of wooing goes a long way in arousing female redback’s passion for the male.

To study the courting habits of redback spiders, Jeffrey Stoltz from the University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada, had to set up females with either one or two males. The researchers then filmed the courtships as they unfolded.

They found that single males spent up to five hours courting the female by alternately plucking the web and beating on her abdomen before attempting to mate.

Singapore - Singapore's Changi Airport has recorded a 3.5 per cent increase in scheduled weekly flights since the beginning of this month, despite softening of travel demand due to the global economic crisis, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said Thursday.

Weekly scheduled flights were expected to increase further in December, when a liberalization agreement, allowing low-cost airlines to operate between Singapore and Malaysia, comes into force, the CAAS said.

Islamabad, Nov 13: Pakistan Government has reportedly started monitoring the flow of water at Head Marala on a daily basis, to ascertain how and to what extent the construction of Baglihar Dam by India was affecting situation in Pakistan.

The government also said that it was “fully aware” of the situation arising out of India’s construction of the Dam.

London, Nov 13: Google has developed a 3D model of the ancient city of Rome that is available for Internet surfers on the company’s virtual globe program called Google Earth.

The project has been developed by Google, in collaboration with the Rome Reborn Project and Past Perfect Productions.

According to a report in the Times, the realisation of the ancient city in Google Earth lets viewers stand in the centre of the Colosseum, trace the footsteps of the gladiators in the Ludus Magnus and fly under the Arch of Constantine.

The computer model, a collection of more than 6,700 buildings, depicts Rome in the year 320 AD.

Munich - Siemens posted a 2.4-billion-euro (3 billion dollars) final quarter loss, mainly as a result of restructuring costs and efforts to root out corruption, the German engineering giant said Thursday.

In the corresponding quarter of the previous business year, the company reported a loss of 74 million euros.

Turnover in the three months up to the end of September in the 2007-2008 business year increased 7 per cent to 21.7 billion euros, while orders were up 4 per cent at 22.2 billion euros, Siemens said.