Jerusalem, Ramallah  - Israeli and Palestinian leaders welcomed Wednesday the victory of Barack Obama in the US presidential election, with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni calling it a "badge of honour" and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urging him to get involved in the peace process "immediately."

"President Abbas looks forward to working with the new US administration to speed up the work and push the peace process forward," his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh told the official Palestinian Wafa news agency from Budapest, where Abbas is visiting.

Sydney - The world's first climate change refugees will be relocated from their Pacific island home on the Solomon Islands to neighbouring Papua New Guinea next year, news reports said Wednesday.

Wasila (Alaska), Nov. 5 : Alaska Governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin cast her vote at the Wasilla City Hall here on Tuesday, but if the comments of political observers are anything to go by, her history-making candidacy, ended up hindering John McCain''s White House dreams.

"She was a drag on the ticket, particularly with undecideds," the New York Daily News quoted Steven Cohen, professor of public administration at Columbia University, as saying.

Washington, Nov 5 : People who are prone to hip fracture can reduce its rate by 37.2 percent by adopting healthy bone programs, says a study conducted by Kaiser Permanente Southern California.

In fact, the hip fracture reduction rate can further go till 50 percent among those at risk.

The five-year study is the first of its kind to assess more than 625,000 male and female patients over the age of 50 in Southern California who had specific risk factors for osteoporosis and/or hip fractures.

Washington, Nov 5 : What was earlier considered to be "junk" DNA has now been found to be an important ingredient distinguishing humans from other species, say scientists at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS).

Over 50 percent of human DNA is designated as "junk" as it consists of copies of nearly identical sequences, the major source of which is internal viruses that have inserted themselves throughout the genome at various times during mammalian evolution.

By using the latest sequencing technologies, scientists proved that a large number of transcription factors—master proteins that control the expression of other genes—bind specific repeat elements.

Washington, Nov 5 : In a new study on mice, researchers have found that Nicotinamide, a form of Vitamin B3, in high doses may prevent lesions and symptoms associated with Alzheimer''s disease.

UC Irvine scientists are now conducting a clinical trial to determine its effect in humans.

Nicotinamide, was found to reduce the levels of a protein called phosphorylated tau that leads to the development of tangles, one of two brain lesions linked with Alzheimer''s.

The researchers found that the vitamin also strengthened scaffolding along which information travels in brain cells.