Washington, Feb. 12 : An audit undertaken by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Washington has reported that tens of thousands of assault rifles and other firearms in Afghanistan are at risk of being stolen and landing in the hands of the Taliban because U. S. officials have lost track of them.

Washington, February 12 : John Travolta's case involving an alleged 25-million-pound extortion attempt targeting the actor following the death of his 16-year-old son Jett may get fast-tracked.

The Hollywood heartthrob had informed the Bahamas police claiming blackmailers threatened to publish a photo of the teenager as he lay struggling for his life, and make "false claims" unless they were paid "millions of dollars".

Cops had hauled in driver Tarino Lightbourne and charged him with conspiracy to commit extortion and attempted extortion.

Washington, Feb 12 : A new study by researchers from the University of Missouri (MU) has suggested that some of the largely petroleum-based plastic may soon be replaced by a nonpolluting, renewable plastic made from plants, which would significantly reduce the carbon footprint.

Reducing the carbon footprint and the dependence on foreign oil, this new `green' alternative may also provide an additional cash crop for farmers.

"Making plastics from plants is not a new idea," said Brian Mooney, research assistant professor of biochemistry with the MU Interdisciplinary Plant Group.

Washington, February 12 : While people generally think of speech as being something they hear, a report now suggests that speech perception involves multiple senses.

Published in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science, the report says that the brain treats speech as something that people hear, see, and even feel.

Psychologist Lawrence D. Rosenblum of the University of California, Riverside, says that people receive a lot of speech information via visual cues, such as lip-reading, and this type of visual speech occurs throughout all cultures.

He says that it is not just information from lips when someone is speaking, people even note the movements of the teeth, tongue and other non-mouth facial features.

Washington, February 12 : Paris Hilton was recently sp

Melbourne, Feb 12 : A US airline has started a controversy after it decorated one of its planes with a picture of Sports Illustrated cover girl Bar Refaeli in a sexy swimsuit.

The Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700, which was unveiled for the first time at La Guardia aiport in New York, has its whole length decorated with a picture of Refaeli lying seductively in a revealing white bikini.

The plane will be flying between New York and Las Vegas and it will bear the sexy image on its fuselage for a limited time, reports News. com. au.