London, Oct 28 : Seventy four percent UK citizens think that the United States is ready for a Black president, a survey has found.

The Reader’s Digest survey found 70 percent of those in the UK favoured Democrat Barack Obama over his Republican rival John McCain and 74 percent thought the US was ready for its first Black president.

In the UK, 17 percent of respondents said they were pro-American, 72 percent neutral and 10 percent anti-American.

Sydney, Oct 28 : A former high school student of Lebanese descent, who developed a phobia of “young Asian men” after allegedly being stabbed at school, is suing the New South Wales Government for negligence.

The 26-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons as he “feared for his life”, after he was stabbed in the playground in an allegedly racially motivated attack at Birrong Boys High School in 1998.

The man, whose name was suppressed in the District Court today by Judge Len Levy, is suing the NSW Department of Education for breach of duty of care.

Melbourne, Oct 28 : North Korea today threatened to turn South Korea into “debris” unless Seoul stops what it described as a policy of confrontation.

“The puppet authorities had better bear in mind that the advanced preemptive strike of our own style will reduce everything ... to debris, not just setting them on fire,” the North Korea’s military said.

“It will turn out to be a just war... to build an independent reunified state on it,”'' it added.

The North warned that its army would take a resolute practical action if the South continues its “confrontational racket,”'' scattering anti-Pyongyang leaflets and conducting a smear campaign with sheer fabrications.

Kuala Lumpur, Oct 28 : Indian Government has reportedly given its green signal to AirAsia to fly daily to and fro between Kuala Lumpur and Tiruchi from Dec 1.

The airline would start selling tickets to Tiruchi in Tamil Nadu at midnight tomorrow, said AirAsia chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes.

“It will be a daily flight and we are looking at even adding a second flight now as the initial response has been tremendous,” staronline.com quoted him as telling reporters at a press conference here yesterday.

Special promotional prices for the flight will cost RM49 one way while the normal ticket price will cost about RM200 one way, he added.

Washington, October 28 : The perception that politicians never keep their promises may require reconsideration, for a study has revealed that political candidates’ words in their campaign ads generally match their deeds.

Tracy Sulkin, a political scientist at the University of Illinois, compared the campaign ads and legislative records of recent congressional officeholders, and observed that the candidates’ words generally matched their deeds.

She said that the issues, which the candidates said were priorities in their commercials, were likely ones that they cared about and would take action on through the introduction and co-sponsoring of legislation.

Whether they were vague or specific on an issue did not matter, she found.

Washington, October 28 : Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers say that the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be reduced with the aid of a high dose of cortisone.

Writing about their findings in the journal Biological Psychiatry, the researchers revealed that in an animal model of PTSD, high doses of cortisol-related substance corticosterone was found to prevent negative consequences of stress exposure, including increased startle response and behavioural freezing when exposed to reminders of the stress.