Washington, Nov 4 : The oldest known Hebrew text, found in Israel, could lend historical support to some Bible stories, including the one about King David.

According to a report in National Geographic News, the 3,000-year-old pottery shard, with five lines of text, was found during excavations of the Elah Fortress, the oldest known Biblical-period fortress that dates to the 10th century B. C.

The Elah Fortress is above the valley where the biblical character of David is said to have battled Goliath.

It is the most important archaeological discovery in Israel since the Dead Sea Scrolls, according to lead researcher Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University''s Institute of Archaeology.

London, Nov 4 : English comedian Russell Brand is in talks for a five-million-pound role in the next Pirates of The Caribbean movie, as Captain Jack Sparrow’s brother.

Captain Jack Sparrow is a character played by American actor Johnny Depp, and in the fourth instalment, the swashbuckling pirate will also have a younger brother, Jonathan.

If the deal goes through, Brand, 33, will automatically end up on the Hollywood A-list, and that too in less than a week after resigning from his Radio 2 show over the Andrew Sachs phone row involving him and Jonathan Ross.

London, Nov 4 : English broadcaster and journalist Jeremy Clarkson has sparked a fresh controversy with his joke about murdering prostitutes.

Clarkson, 48, who co-presents the BBC TV show Top Gear, had made the remark on November 2 night''s BBC2 show, after he had completed a lorry-driving task.

"This is a hard job and I''m not just saying that to win favour with lorry drivers," the Daily Express quoted him as having said.

"Change gear, change gear, change gear, check mirror, murder a prostitute, change gear, change gear, murder. That''s a lot of effort in a day," he had stated.

Zurich - Switzerland's reinsurance giant Swiss Re reported a surprise third-quarter loss Tuesday, slipping 304 million Swiss francs (259 million dollars) into the red after registering a profit of

London, Nov 4: Running around like a child in a park could be more beneficial to your health than traditionally adult activities like jogging, University of Glamorgan research has found.

The research team has found that short sharp sprints of up to 30 seconds could be as beneficial as doing up to five sessions of an hour''s exercise a week.

The researchers found that shorter bursts of exercise could be more practical to follow.

To reach the conclusion, the university studied the exercise patterns over several years, comparing short high-intensity sprints to longer endurance training, such as cycling and jogging.