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London, Oct 24 : The traditional advice that rubbing bumps and bruises relieves pain and aches, is actually true, a new research has found.

Research by the University of Cumbria has shown that the gentle touch can not only soothe minor injuries, but can also lessen stress and pain.

According to the researchers, their tests showed that patients' symptoms improved when treated using this technique.

For the study, 300 patients with a wide range of ailments were given four hour-long treatment sessions within six weeks at the Centre for Complementary Care in Muncaster, Cumbria.

Analysis showed that there was considerable progress in psychological and physical functioning, mainly in stress reduction, pain relief, increased ability to cope and increased general health.

Washington, Oct 24 : A systematic review of nine studies has shown that women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) cannot rely upon low-dose aspirin to increase their chances of having a successful pregnancy.

Earlier studies have shown that aspirin therapy improves pregnancy rates for women undergoing IVF, while others have indicated that it increases the risk of miscarriage.

“It is thought by some that taking low-dose aspirin may improve blood flow to the uterus and therefore improve ovarian response to IVF treatment, so it may be of benefit to women who have previously responded poorly to IVF treatment,” said the review’s lead author Vanessa Poustie, Ph.D., at the Institute for Child Health at the University of Liverpool in England.

Sydney, Oct.24 : There have been plenty of light moments in the cricket life of Ricky Ponting, too, and one of them surrounded his first involvement with Shane Warne at the Australian Cricket Academy in Adelaide during the winter of 1992, of how the aspiring spin-king tried to lead him astray even though his then captain-to-be was a teenager at the time.

In his book, Ponting reveals that despite their age difference — Ponting was 17 and Warne almost 23 — "he headed in my direction and we shared some time together".

Writes Ponting in his Captain’s Dairy for 2007: "He was the bloke responsible for my nickname 'Punter', assigned to me because of my habit of sneaking down to the TAB on Monday and Thursday nights to have a bet on the greyhounds.

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Sydney, Oct.24 : In his new book, Captain's Diary 2007, which hits bookshelves across Australia today, Ponting reveals how his team's World Cup-winning celebrations almost ended in disaster — with the possibility of even a night in jail — in the West Indies earlier this year after the team ventured back onto the Bridgetown pitch to sing its celebratory song Under the Southern Cross following its win over Sri Lanka in the final.

According to stuff.nz.com, Ponting noticed a group of policemen coming up behind them, with one of them saying: "Righto boys, time to go, you've got to get off the ground."

Washington, Oct 24 : An international team of scientists from the US, Germany, Spain and Sweden have successfully launched a solar telescope to an altitude of 120,000 feet on board a balloon.

The test clears the way for long duration polar balloon flights beginning 2009 that aims to capture unprecedented details of the Sun’s surface.

“This unique research project will enable us to view features of the Sun that we've never seen before. We hope to unlock important mysteries about the Sun's magnetic field structures, which at times can cause electromagnetic storms in our upper atmosphere and may have an impact on Earth's climate,” said Michael Knölker, director of NCAR's High Altitude Observatory and a principal investigator on the project.