Washington, Feb 18 : In a new research, biologists have suggested that `assisted colonization' can play a vital role in helping wildlife to survive in a warming world.

The research, led by biologists at Durham and York Universities, and funded by NERC, aimed to examine the implications of climate change for the conservation and management of biodiversity by looking at the distribution of butterflies.

They have shown that translocation to climatically suitable areas can work and that butterflies can survive beyond their northern ranges if they're given a `helping hand' to get to suitable new habitats.

Beijing - A Chinese automaker denied holding talks over buying General Motors' Hummer-brand sports utility vehicle unit, a spokesmen for the firm said on Wednesday.

"We don't have the desire (to buy Hummer) and we haven't had any contact with GM," the Sichuan Auto Industry Group spokesman said.

Bloomberg News on Tuesday quoted unidentified sources as saying Sichuan Auto, one of China's smaller auto makers, could pay up to 500 million dollars for Hummer.

Washington, Feb 18 : A new study by NASA scientists has determined that an early warning system, more than a decade in development, successfully predicted the 2006-2007 outbreak of the deadly Rift Valley fever virus in northeast Africa.

Rift Valley fever is unique in that its emergence is closely linked to interannual climate variability.

Washington, Feb. 18 : A bronze bust of the former prime minister Sir Winston Churchill, which British Government loaned to George W Bush in the wake of the 9/11 attacks as a symbol of the strong transatlantic relationship, has now been handed back.

Washington, Feb 18 : Scientists undertook a study on a 5-day space mission on the shuttle Columbia, which showed sweet potato can regenerate its roots in microgravity.

The study was undertaken by Desmond G. Mortley and colleagues from the Center for Food and Environmental Systems for Human Exploration of Space, G. W. Carver Agricultural Experiment Station, and the Kennedy Space Center.

Seeds of several crops have been grown in microgravity, but this was the first test for plants grown from cuttings.

Cuttings grow roots faster than do seeds, and sweetpotato cuttings regenerate very easily.

Washington, Feb 18 : NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), which will seek water ice on Moon, is enroute from Northrop Grumman's facility in Redondo Beach, California, to the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation for a spring launch.

The satellite's primary mission is to search for water ice on the moon in a permanently shadowed crater near one of the lunar poles.

LCROSS is a low-cost, accelerated-development, companion mission to NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO.