Tokyo  - Britain's Prince Charles on Tuesday called for concerted efforts to build a low-carbon society to combat global warming while on a visit to Japan.

"We must not abandon the drive towards a low-carbon economy," the prince of Wales said in a speech marking the 150th anniversary of bilateral relations between Japan and Britain.

He arrived in Tokyo late Monday with his wife, Camilla, for a five-day visit.

The prince called climate change "the biggest challenge our planet has ever seen."

He said that even as the world now faces a financial crisis, it should not divert attention and efforts from protecting the earth.

Seoul  - North Korea's military on Tuesday threatened the destruction of its southern neighbour, accusing South Korea of planning a military strike against the Pyongyang regime, a news report said.

At the slightest sign of an attempt by Seoul to preemptively strike the communist state, North Korea would attack with "means more powerful than a nuclear strike," the South Korean Yonhap news agency said, quoting a report in its northern counterpart, the Korean Central News Agency.

"The puppet authorities had better bear in mind that the advanced preemptive strike of our own style will reduce everything ... to debris, not just setting them on fire," a spokesman of North Korea's army was quoted as saying.

Washington, Oct 28 : Electrically stimulating the brain with a non-invasive technique called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can improve a person’s skill at handling delicate tasks.

According to the Drs. Gottfried Schlaug and Bradley Vines from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, tDCS could improve the use of a person''s non-dominant hand. 

In tDCS, electrodes are attached to the scalp and a weak direct current is passed the scalp and skull to alter the excitability of the underlying brain tissue. 

The treatment has two principal modes depending on the direction in which the current runs between the two electrodes. Brain tissue that underlies the positive electrode 

London, Oct 28 : Nazi memorabilia being auctioned in London has raised a whopping 90,000 pounds, despite the recent credit crunch shaking the world.

Jonathan Humbert, of Northamptonshire-based J. P. Humbert Auctioneers, claimed that his three-day grand sale had fetched a massive 90,000 pounds thus far. 

The Nazi items that have been put up for going under the hammer includes a death head ring owned by Nazi SS leader Heinrich Himmler, which was sold for 2,200 pounds.

A number of other Nazi daggers and swords raised hammer prices ranging from 200 to 800 pounds each.

There was also a Nazi pin badge that sold for 180 pounds. 

Kuala Lumpur  - Malaysia's share market dropped 3.1 per cent Tuesday on panic selling by investors concerned over a dismal global economic outlook, said dealers.

Singapore  - An afternoon buying spree Tuesday brought some relief to Singapore's battered Straits Times Index, which nosedived in the first hour of trading.

The index made a turnaround, gaining 66.21 points, or 4.41 per cent, to close at 1,666.49.

The index had dropped to a low of 1,475.86 within the first hour of trading to start the week on a bearish note after being closed Monday for a holiday.

A total of 1,490.5 million shares were traded on the Singapore Exchange with 364 stocks recording losses and 205 managing gains.