Tel Aviv - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered the crossing points into the Gaza Strip to be shut Thursday, after militants in the salient fired a Qassam rocket at southern Israel.

The rocket, fired from the north of the strip toward the nearby Israeli town of Sderot, caused neither damage nor injuries, an Israeli military spokesman said.

Militants had also fired a rocket on Thursday, causing Barak to take a similar decision regarding the crossing points.

George Town (Malaysia), Oct 30 : The National Fatwa Council in Malaysia is expected to make its stance clear about Muslims practicing yoga soon, after a leading Muslim professor at a Malaysian University preached to his community men to shun yoga, saying that its origins could be tracked to Hinduism.

It is learnt that the matter had been discussed at the Council''s meeting in Kota Baru recently.

New Delhi - Envoys of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, were travelling to Beijing on Thursday for a new round of talks with Chinese officials, a senior Tibetan official said.

"The envoys Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen took a flight for Beijing early Thursday morning. They will be there (Beijing) for about a week," said Thubten Samphel, spokesman for the Tibetan government-in-exile in India.

A disciplined bowling effort in the last overs of the 23rd match of the ICL20s Indian Championship ensured a 3 run win for Hyderabad Heroes over the Ahmedabad Rockets.

London, Oct 30 : Attractive couples hand their good looks down to their daughters, but have little impact on whether their sons are handsome, according to a new study.

University of St Andrews boffins have found that while both parents influence the attractiveness of their daughters, male attractiveness is not inherited.

In a study of family photographs, psychologists Professor David Perrett and Elisabeth Cornwell – now at the University of Colorado – found that while both father and mother can influence the attractiveness of their daughters, the couple''s good looks do not necessarily contribute to the attractiveness of their son as an adult.

Taipei - Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai is negotiating to buy Taiwan's largest newspaper group, the China Times Group, a newspaper said Thursday.

Three parties are seeking to buy the loss-making China Times Group, but Lai's Next Media Group was seen as the likely winner because it is willing to accept a package sale while the other two bidders only want to buy the China Times Group's two profit-making television stations, the Economic Daily News said.

The takeover talks were near completion and Next Media was expected to announce the takeover in early November, the News quoted unnamed industry sources as saying.

Both Next Media and the China Times Group refused to comment on the news report.