Washington, October 11 : German researchers say that dyslexia, a learning disability whose sufferers struggle with reading and writing, can occur due to genetic causes.

“We are trying to find out which genes cause the disease. A predisposition to dyslexia could be detected by a genetic test to support affected children appropriately at a very early age,” says Arndt Wilcke, scientist at the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (IZI) in Leipzig.

The researcher says that the migration of nerve cells to their designated positions during brain development at the embryonic stage is routed by specific genes, which, when defective, can be a cause for dyslexia.

Chicago, Oct. 11 : Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s wife Michelle, popular talk show host Oprah, Winfrey and party vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden spoke at a women''s conference in Chicago on Friday.

Michelle Obama also spoke at the gathering at the Sheraton Hotel in Chicago, called the National Women’s Leadership Issues Conference.

Washington, October 11 : Transparency in politics can increase corruption rather than decrease it, according to a new study.

Viviana Stechina, an expert from Uppsala University in Sweden, studied why corruption among the political elite was more extensive in Argentina than in Chile during the Nineties.

In her comparison, she focused on the rules of the game of politics, and on the actions of the political elite in situations that offer many incentives and opportunities for corruption.

After deeply investigating several privatisation processes in the two countries, she identified the institutional circumstances that heightened or reduced the risk of elite corruption.

Washington, Oct. 11 : As sexism charges against media coverage of Sarah Palin have intensified in recent weeks, one particular news photograph has roused widespread fury among readers who say it demeans the Alaska governor as nothing more than a sex object.

The photographs -- taken Wednesday by the Reuters wire service and also by the Associated Press -- shows the Republican vice presidential candidate addressing supporters at a rally in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. But the only glimpse of Palin in the photo is a blurred close-up of her legs -- with the face of a young, male audience member set between them as he looks upward at the stage.

Washington, Oct 11 : Scientists have used DNA testing to verify that a female blacktip shark in Virginia, US, fertilized her own egg without mating with a male shark, a process which has been dubbed as “virgin birth”.

According to a report in National Geographic News, this is the second time scientists have used DNA testing to verify shark parthenogenesis — the process that allows females of some species to produce offspring without sperm.

The female shark, dubbed Tidbit, died during a routine physical exam before the pregnancy was identified.

A necropsy — an animal autopsy — after her death revealed she was carrying a near-term pup fetus that was about 12 inches (30 centimeters) in length.

Washington, October 11 : A study conducted at the Christian Medical College & Hospital, Vellore, has revealed that hereditary and acquired risk factors play an important role in the clotting of blood in abdominal veins, a condition medically known as abdominal venous thrombosis.

Professor Ashok Chacko, the study leader, says that recognition and evaluation of these risk factors may help in therapy, and prevention of disease progression.

He has revealed that hereditary risk factors for thrombophilia include Factor V Leiden gene mutation, Prothrombin gene mutation, homozygous methyl tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene mutation and deficiencies of coagulation inhibitor Protein C, Protein S and Antithrombin III.