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Wellington, Oct 24 : A new study has shown that one in four New Zealand women are sexually abused as children.

The study, by the University of Auckland, revealed that 23 per cent of Kiwi women in urban areas and 28 per cent in rural areas experienced some form of sexual abuse when under 15 years-old.

The researchers also found that around half of the women had experienced the abuse on more than one occasion and in most cases, one perpetrator was involved, generally a male family member.

According to the team, the average age of the victim at the start of the abuse was nine, while that of the abuser was 30.

London, Oct 24 : Twin sisters in the UK have defied all odds by celebrating their 101st birthday.

Elizabeth Sowerbutts and Mary Blackburn reached the landmark of a centenary last year, but they went a step further by turning 101 on Oct 21.

"It's a pretty rare feat,” the Telegraph quoted a Buckingham Palace spokesman, as saying.

The twins, who live in opposite parts of Britain, could not travel to see each other because of health restrains.

Elizabeth and Mary, born in1906 on a farm at Clitheroe in Lancashire, were brought up by a pair of maiden aunts after their mother died when they were just two-years-old.

Mary, who lives in a care home in Milnthorpe, Cumbria, has been twice married and now has five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

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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.