Washington, Nov. 19 : Former US President Bill Clinton''s Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder is likely to take over as the country’s next Attorney General under the Barack Obama administration.

According to a Fox News report, Washington attorney Eric Holder would first have to go through a Senate confirmation, and officials close to process of selection are said to be sending feelers around the Senate to see if Holder passes muster.

Washington, Nov 19 : A team of astronomers from Penn State and Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland has discovered a new planet that is orbiting dangerously close to a red-giant star.

The star, known as HD 102272, which is much older than our own Sun, is being closely orbited by a planet that has a mass that is nearly six times that of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.

The team that discovered the star includes Alexander Wolszczan, the director of the Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds at Penn State University, and Andrzej Niedzielski, who leads his collaborators in Poland.

The team suspects that a second planet may be orbiting HD 102272, as well.

Washington, Nov 19 : The first Islamic inscription, dating back to 1,300 years, may help solve a mystery about the Qur’an that has vexed historians for hundreds of years, namely the reason behind the text being seemingly written without diacritical marks.

Diacritical marks, which include accent marks, tildes, umlauts and other notations, help to distinguish one letter from another and aid in pronunciation. When added or removed, they can completely change the meaning of a word or sentence.

According to a report in Discovery News, the Islamic inscription, which predates the earliest known copies of the Qur’an, was made by an Arabic traveler who engraved his name on a block of red sandstone 1,300 years ago.

Washington, Nov 19 : Proper spacing of lessons can dramatically enhance learning, according to a group of researchers, who added that larger gaps between study sessions result in better recall of facts.

On the other hand, cramming – whether it''s math for a midterm or a foreign language in anticipation of a trip abroad – is not effective in the long haul, say the researchers.

Led by Hal Pashler and John Wixted, professors of psychology at UC San Diego, the study has implications for education.

Washington, Nov 19: Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf will embark on a lecture tour in the US from early next year, with his first speaking engagement to take place at the World Affairs Council of Western Michigan at Grand Rapids on 14 January.

The occasion will be the 59th anniversary dinner of the world council.

The subject that Musharraf would speak on is, however, not clear yet.

Washington, November 19: Déjà vu, the feeling that a present event has happened before in the same way, may occur when specific aspects of a current situation resemble those of any circumstances one has faced in the past, according to a new study report.

Anne M. Cleary, a psychologist at Colorado State University, writes in the report that one gets a strong feeling of familiarity when there is a lot of overlap between the elements of the new and old situations.