Washington, Oct 30 : Eating grapes can help fight high blood pressure and lower signs of heart muscle damage, suggests a new study.

What’s more, intake of grapes can improve heart function, the study in lab rats found.

The new study, published in the October issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Biological Sciences, gives tantalizing clues to the potential of grapes in reducing cardiovascular risk. The effect is thought to be due to the high level of phytochemicals – naturally occurring antioxidants – that grapes contain.

The study was performed in laboratory rats. The researchers noted that while these study results are extremely encouraging, more research needs to be done.

Washington, Oct 30 : A new research has given chubby people the perfect excuse to go ahead and gorge on their favourite sweets in the festive season: fat cells in the obese produce melanin, a common antioxidant, in excess.

In the report, researchers have described the discovery that may allow some obese people avoid common obesity-related metabolic problems without actually losing weight.

Even more promising is that some of the antioxidant drugs that can mimic

the melanin effect are FDA-approved and available, the boffins found.

This availability would greatly speed the development of new treatments, should they prove effective in clinical trials.

According to a new study high blood levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) do not increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. The protein CRP is a part of the body's inflammatory immune response and earlier studies had suggested that this protein could be linked to events that culminate in the formation of a blood clot, which can go on to cause a potentially deadly heart attack or stroke.

LG Electronics India, a global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, has decided to hike prices of its products in almost all categories from November 1 to offset the sharp depreciation of rupee against the dollar.

Amitabh Tiwari, Head of Electronics Department, LG Electronics India said,, “We have decided to hike prices from November 1 ranging from up to 5 per cent across almost all product categories, as we are unable to take further hits on account of rupee depreciation.”

Tokyo - Sharp Corp on Thursday reported a 35.3-per-cent fall in its net profit for the April-September period from a year earlier due to slow mobile-phone sales and price reduction in liquid-crystal-display televisions.

The Japanese home electronics company logged a net profit of 28.01 billion yen (287.73 million dollars) and an operating profit of 50.76 billion yen for the first six months of the business year that runs through March 31.

Operating profit fell 35.8 per cent year-on-year.

Sharp reported sales of 1.56 trillion yen, which was 4.8 per cent lower than the previous year's figure.

Vienna - The price for crude oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) rose by 2.23 dollars Wednesday, as the weaker dollar buoyed oil markets, according to data released by OPEC on Thursday.

One barrel (159 litres) of OPEC crude stood at 58.13 dollars on Wednesday, up from 55.90 dollars on the previous day.

The oil price rebounded as interest-rate cuts in the United States and China on Wednesday led to a depreciation of the dollar, Vienna-based analysts JBC Energy said.