Amsterdam  - Dutch police have arrested two blackmailers who are suspected of trying to sell a USB memory stick with sensitive information that had gone missing back to the military, the Defence Ministry confirmed Wednesday.

Officers from the national police force (KM) seized the two men as they turned up for the scheduled handover of money, the ministry said.

The two men, aged 28 and 29, had threatened to hand the electronic data over to the press if the military did not pay them, De Telegraaf newspaper reported.

The memory stick is believed to have contained information about cargo flights to Dutch troops in Afghanistan.

The men, who now face charges of blackmail and fraud, found the memory stick at a car wash.

Patients who are taking beta-blockers before and at the time of undergoing non-cardiac surgery appears to have the highest risk of heart attack and death within a month of their surgery, a new research reveals.

“Prevention of these perioperative [around the time of surgery] cardiac complications continues to be the goal of intense research and investigations,” quote the author

A new survey reveals that the people of US become obsessed with their carbon footprints. Their extreme environmental awareness may create a generation of “carborexics”, warns Psychiatrists in US.

According to a new survey 7% of Americans qualify as ‘dark green’ and become hard core recyclers. The New York Times report describe their lifestyles that might considered as ‘carborexic’.

Washington, Oct 22 : A new research has explored the possibilities of how enzymes produced by both termites and the micro-organisms that inhabit their gut could help to produce biofuel from non-edible plant material such as straw and wood.

Michael Scharf, an assistant professor of entomology at the University of Florida, Gainesville, and his colleague Aurelien Tartar undertook the research.

“Through millions and millions of years of evolution, termites and their symbionts have acquired highly specialised enzymes that work together to efficiently convert wood and other plant materials into simple sugars,” said Scharf.

“These enzymes are of the most value to bioethanol production,” he added.

Munich  - Troubled German state bank BayernLB announced Wednesday a review of all its costs just one day after it said was tapping the government's financial rescue plan for 5.4 billion euros (7.1 billion dollars).

"We will be looking at all positions," said a spokesman of the Munich-based bank, which has been badly hit by the global financial crisis and which became the first German financial house to apply for financial support from Berlin's 480 billion-euro bank rescue package.

The cost review includes the 19,000 BayernLB's world-wide labour force with the bank having already warned that it might not be able to avoid job cuts.

The Bavarian state bank is planning a 400-million saving project in the next three years.

New Delhi - A stockbroker in India's financial capital of Mumbai killed his pregnant wife before committing suicide due to the financial downturn, media reports said Wednesday.

Parag Tanna and his wife Neha were found dead by relatives in the city's Kandivali area Tuesday night, police told CNN-IBN network.

Police suspect that Tanna, who strangled his wife, had huge investments in the stock exchange and that his recent losses drove him to commit suicide.