London/Frankfurt - Faced with a looming recession and rapidly falling inflation, Europe's two leading central banks are expected to cut rates this week as monetary authorities around the world step up efforts to slash the cost of money.

Indeed, analysts are predicting that the Bank of England (BoE) and the European Central Bank (ECB) will each announce on Thursday at least 50-basis-point reductions in borrowing costs in a fresh bid aimed at shoring up economic confidence in Europe.

London, November 4 : Japanese researchers have successfully cloned healthy mice from cells derived from dead mice, which had been frozen for 16 years.

Teruhiko Wakayama, of the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, says that the breakthrough has raised the possibility of cloning endangered species from old carcasses.

He says that this advancement even indicates that researchers may someday be able to resurrect extinct animals frozen in permafrost, such as the woolly mammoth.

"It would be very difficult, but our work suggests that it is no longer science fiction," New Scientist magazine quoted him as saying.

London, Nov 4 : A new study has indicated that the Cassini probe may have already collected data that could reveal the presence of life on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, in the form of an underground ocean capable of sustaining life.

Researchers have been fascinated with Enceladus since July 2005, when Cassini revealed a dramatic plume of ice particles and water vapour shooting out from the moon’s south pole.

The plume’s origin is still being debated, but some models suggest the moon holds an ocean of liquid water beneath its surface. This ocean could be a potential habitat for extraterrestrial life.

London, Nov 4 : Cancer rates could double in the next 40 years unless actions are taken to stop the rising tide of obesity, health experts have warned.

Studies have shown that the chance of developing major killers like breast and kidney cancer rises as people become increasingly overweight.

Health experts foresee that if trends continue up to one third of British women and half of men could be obese by 2050, up from around a quarter at the moment.

Professor Martin Wiseman, the medical and scientific adviser to the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) charity, says that today''s children will face increasing rates of cancer as they grow up unless tough action is taken.

London, Nov 4 : The announcement by physicists that the Tevatron particle accelerator at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, which is the Large Hadron Collider’s (LHC’s) predecessor, has produced particles that they are unable to explain, could be a sign of new physics.

The Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) monitors the particles that spew from collisions between protons and anti-protons, which are accelerated and smashed head-on by the Tevatron.

The collision occurs inside the 1.5-centimetre-wide “beam pipe” that confines the protons and anti-protons, and the particles created are tracked by surrounding layers of electronics.

London, Nov 4 : A sheep has given birth to twin lambs at a refugee camp in the Middle East – one of which is born with two heads.

Although one of the twins is normal, the two-headed sheep has been branded a ‘holy lamb’ by its owner, who said the lamb’s birth is ‘God’s Will’.

"This year the sheep gave birth to twins. The first one was a normal lamb and with the second lamb the legs came out first. Then suddenly we saw two heads. That is God''s will,” The Telegraph quoted the owner Mohammed Moussab, as saying.