Brussels - NATO defence ministers meet on Thursday and Friday amid concerns that a "Vietnam Syndrome" may undermine the alliance's efforts in Afghanistan.

The talks in Budapest come just days after the departing commander of the British forces in Afghanistan, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, warned that NATO would never defeat the Taliban.

Rome - Italy's scientific community is up in arms over what it charges as the unfair exclusion of an Italian researcher from this year's Nobel Prize for physics.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Tuesday awarded the prize to US researcher Yoichiro Nambu and his Japanese colleagues Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa, for discoveries linked to describing the smallest building blocks in nature.

Vienna - Losing another 1.53 dollars Tuesday, the price for crude oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) fell for the seventh day in a row, according to data provided by OPEC on Wednesday.

One barrel (159 litres) of OPEC crude stood at 80.04 dollars Tuesday, compared with 81.57 dollars on the previous day.

Washington, October 8 : The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in the U. S. has enlisted 12 germs that can spread into new regions due to climate change, significantly affecting both human and wildlife health and global economies.

It new report, entitled ‘The Deadly Dozen: Wildlife Diseases in the Age of Climate Change’, highlights diseases that may spread as a result of changes in temperatures and precipitation levels.

It is a day for the nation to rejoice as Steel Tycoon L N Mittal, the ArcelorMittal CEO has been elected as the Chairman of the World Steel Association, a representative body which includes 180 steel producers all over the world.

The announcement was made on the first day of World Steel Association’s 42nd annual conference in Washington. Mittal who earlier also held the position in its executive committee now has been presented with the most coveted position in the body.

Beijing, Oct. 8: A 6.4 billion dollar deal to sell US arms to Taiwan has ruined years of Chinese efforts to build military trust with the Pentagon.

A spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Washington should bear full responsibility for the consequences.

He made the remarks after the US government announced plans on Friday to sell a massive arms package to Taiwan, including 30 Apache attack helicopters and 330 Patriot missiles.