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Kabul, Sep 27 : US-led coalition troops backed by warplanes have killed about 170 Taliban militants in two major battles in southern Afghanistan. A US-led coalition soldier has also died in the operation.

Fighting with the insurgents erupted on Tuesday in Helmand, a Taliban stronghold, and continued till Wednesday, a statement from the US-led coalition said.

"The initial estimate by a ground forces commander assessed that more than 104 insurgents were killed thus far in the engagement," it said. The figures could not be verified independently.

Washington, Sept 27 : American researchers have developed a new drug, that when administered along with chemotherapy, shows promise in treating advanced melanoma, delaying the progression of cancer and prolonging the lives of patients.

The new drug, STA-4783, is the first in a new class called oxidative stress inducers.

Washington, Sept 27 : A new research has revealed that patients with both Clostridium difficile infection (C-difficile) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) like Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, are four times more likely to die than patients with just IBD or C difficile infection.

Clostridium difficile infection is the main cause of diarrhoea among patients, and in recent years, the numbers of new cases of the infection have been steadily increasing.

Washington, Sept 27 : A study of caves of the tropical Pacific island of Borneo has helped scientists understand how the Earth’s climate suddenly changed several times over the last 25,000 years.

Georgia Tech Asst. Prof. Kim Cobb and graduate student Jud Partin analyzed stalagmites, pillar-like rock formations that stem from the ground in caves, to produce a high-resolution and continuous record of the climate over the equatorial rainforest.

Hyderabad, Sept. 27 : With every passing year Hyderabad’s Hussain Sagar Lake is dying a slow death due to the immersion of thousands of idols during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival, environmentalists said on Wednesday.

Environmentalists said materials like Plaster of Paris do not dissolve easily and reduce the oxygen content in the water, which in turn results in the death of fish and other aquatic species.

Washington, Sept 27 : Archaeologists have discovered a Stone Age rice field in a swamp in China.

The team led by Cheng Zong of Britain’s Durham University found evidence of prehistoric rice cultivation, including flood and fire control on the site of Kuahuqiao in Zhejiang province near present-day Hangzhou.

The research follows previous excavations at the site that revealed a Stone Age community of wooden dwellings perched on stilts over the marshy wetlands.