It might be very heart wrenching to know that the emission of global yearly carbon dioxide from fossils ad manufacturing cement have increased from 6.1 bn tonnes in 1992 to 8.5 billion tonnes by 2007. But more alarming signs are that recently the US Department of Energy's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre at Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL), through their studies that presently developing countries like China and India have become the biggest source of emission of such gases.

Hong Kong - The typhoon that raged past Hong Kong last week was so powerful it spun a stationary jumbo jet around, officials at the city's international airport said Sunday.

The Boeing Classic 747-200 cargo plane was rotated a full 90 degrees by the wind during the height of Typhoon Hagupit's Hong Kong landfall early last Wednesday.

The Ocean Airlines jet, now the property of a financier, has been left on a parking bay near the control tower of Hong Kong's airport since July 2007, shortly before the Italy-based airline went under.

Beijing - As China's Shenzhou 7 spacecraft prepared for return to Earth later Sunday, Chinese space officials said a fire alarm that went off during its first spacewalk was false.

Wang Zhaoyao, spokesperson for the country's manned space programme, said late Saturday that an alarm sounded because of sensor error, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

"We were quite nervous when the astronaut in the re-entry module reported the fire alarm," he told reporters.

Washington, Sept 27: Scientists at University of Michigan have discovered a key HIV accessory protein, called HIV-1 Nef, that thwarts the body's normal immune response - a finding that may pave the way for more powerful AIDS drugs.

While current anti-HIV drugs are life saving, they cannot root the virus out of the body. Infected cells are able to live on, undetected by the immune system, and provide the machinery for the virus to reproduce and spread.

Washington, September 27: NASA’s Phoenix Scout Lander, which reached Mars on May 25 this year, is using the thermal and electrical conductivity probe to look for evidence of water on the Red Planet.

After reaching Mars on May 25, the Phoenix opened a soils lab, and started looking for water. It uses a robotic scoop arm to deliver regolith samples to the suite of instruments aboard the Lander.

Beijing - Preparations for China's first spacewalk, scheduled for Saturday, went without a hitch, said Chinese mission control, which confirmed the commander of the mission would get the honour of being the first Chinese to step out into space.

Zhai Zhigang is to leave the Shenzhou VII spacecraft about 4:30 pm (0830 GMT) for a half-hour spacewalk.

Zhai, 41, is to test his 120-kilogram, Chinese-made protective suit, which cost 4 million to 30 million dollars, according to various state media reports.

He was also slated to perform tasks including the retrieval of a 3-kilogram solid lubricant experiment from the rear of Shenzhou VII.