Chennai, Oct 31: Shops and other business establishments observed a 12-hour shutdown in Chennai today to protest against the ongoing conflict in Tamil dominated area of Sri Lanka.

City''s major markets including vegetable and fruit markets observed a shutdown over the issue.

The protesting traders said, they would continue to lend support to the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

"It is our demand that Sri Lanka should put a stop to the war against the Tamils. We will continue to provide support for the Tamils and raise our voices against the atrocities and we are also ready to face any challenge that will come in our way," said Komagan, Secretary, Koyambedu Vegetable Market, Chennai.

Washington, Oct 31: Republican presidential hopeful John McCain’s supporters are hoping for a “Bradley effect” bounce on the Election Day, but some pollsters and strategists say they may have another thing coming that is: Bandwagon effect.

Washington, Oct 31: A simple blood test may soon help predict obesity, say researchers.

A new study from the Monell Center has found that the degree of change in blood triglyceride levels following a fatty meal may indicate susceptibility to diet-induced obesity.

Triglycerides are a form of fat that is transported in the blood and stored in the body’s fat tissues. They are found in foods and also are manufactured by the body.

Washington, Oct 31: Memories often persist in our minds. Now, researchers from Duke University Medical Centre claim to have identified the machinery that helps make the reminiscences.

Plasticity, the ability of the brain to precisely rearrange the connections between its nerve cells, is the framework for learning and forming memories.

The researchers have identified a missing-link molecule that helps to explain the process of plasticity. They hope that the new find might lead to targeted therapies.

London, Oct 31: Senior US intelligence officers could be put on trial in Britain after it emerged last night that the Attorney General is to investigate allegations that a British resident held in Guantanamo Bay was brutally tortured, after being arrested and questioned by American forces following the terrorist attacks on New York in 2001.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has asked Baroness Scotland to consider bringing criminal proceedings against CIA officers allegedly responsible for the rendition and abuse of Binyam Mohamed, when he was held in prisons in Morocco and Afghanistan.

Washington, Oct 31: Barack Obama is expected to do a turbocharged transition if he wins, with a Treasury secretary and White House chief of staff named days after his election, Democratic Party sources have said.

“They would like to make Treasury the first appointment as a symbol and have the other big ones done in the first week,” the Daily News quoted a source close to the Obama transition team, as saying.