Washington, May 29 : In early human evolution, when faithful females started choosing good providers as mates, pair-bonding replaced promiscuity, which laid down the foundation for the emergence of the institution of the modern family, a new study has suggested.

The study helps answer long-standing questions in evolutionary biology about how the modern family, characterized by intense, social attachments with exclusive mates, emerged following earlier times of promiscuity.

Washington, May 29 : Swedish startup `asmallworld. net' founder Erik Wachtmeister is preparing to take on Facebook by creating a new social media site.

Wachtmeister has planned to launch Bestofallworlds. com this month, and was recently spotted meeting with Facebook foes Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss,

"Facebook is about vanity, not really utility, and the noise from the past. Best of all Worlds is about utility and the present and the future in a trusted environment," The New York Post quoted Wachtmeister, as saying.

Washington, May 29 : U. S. President Barack Obama''s top military adviser, General Martin Dempsey, has said senate lawmakers had made the right call by voting to trim aid to Pakistan, over the conviction of Dr Shakil Afridi, who helped the CIA track down Al-Qaeda chief, Osama Bin Laden.

"I think that choices should result in consequences. And I think, the Senate acted appropriately," The News quoted General Dempsey, as saying.

"Pakistan is an important country in the region and globally. And so we need to work through the relationship," Dempsey added. (ANI)

Washington, May 29 : President Barack Obama has slammed America's treatment of Vietnam veterans, describing it as a `disgrace', and vowed that combat troops returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would not suffer similar dishonour.

Obama said the Vietnam war was `one of the most painful chapters in our history', especially `how we treated our troops who served there.'

"You were often blamed for a war you didn't start, when you should have been commended for serving your country with valor," he said while addressing veterans before a monument dedicated to the 60,000 Americans killed in Vietnam.

Washington, May 29 : The US military has denied reports that its special forces have parachuted into North Korea to gather intelligence on that country''s underground military installations, saying a source had been misquoted.

According to the Herald Sun, current affairs magazine The Diplomat had quoted Brigadier General Neil Tolley, commander of special forces in South Korea, saying that American and South Korean troops had been entering the North Korea for ''special reconnaissance'' missions.

Washington, May 29: People who are not that worried about the effects of global warming tend to have a slightly higher level of scientific knowledge than those who are worried, according to a new study.

The results published in the journal Nature Climate Change was determined by asking questions about both science and statistics to 1,540 representative Americans.

The quiz contains 22 questions like: "Electrons are smaller than atoms -- true or false?"

"How long does it take the Earth to go around the Sun? One day, one month, or one year?"

"Lasers work by focusing sound waves -- true or false?"

Washington, May 29 : A handwritten note by late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs that described changes Atari could make to an arcade game, is up for auction, according to a report.

US-based Sotheby''s is auctioning the memo penned in 1974 by then-19-year-old Jobs that describes changes Atari could make to its World Cup Soccer arcade game to add fun and functionality.

According to CNET, the memo is expected to fetch 10,000 to 15,000 dollars.

Jobs worked briefly at Atari, helping the game maker improve design, before he co-founded Apple.

Washington, May 28 : Modern birds are, essentially, living dinosaurs, with skulls that are significantly similar to those of their juvenile ancestors, according to a new study.

At first glance, it''''s hard to see how a common house sparrow and a Tyrannosaurus Rex might have anything in common.

After all, one is a bird that weighs less than an ounce, and the other is a dinosaur that was the size of a school bus and tipped the scales at more than eight tons.

For all their differences, though, new study, led by Harvard scientists, has now suggested that the two are more closely related than many believed.

New York, May 28 : A Portland actor showed his extraordinary romantic side when he got together 60 of his friends to propose to his girlfriend through a live lip-synced version of the Bruno Mars song `Marry Me'.

A YouTube video of the proposal, which took place on Wednesday, has already become an online hit with more than 300,000 views, the Daily Mail reported.

Isaac Lamb popped the question to his girlfriend Amy Frankel in what he has billed as the "first live lip dub proposal" - an elaborate, choreographed dance routine that has already been viewed over 1.5 million times on YouTube.

Washington, May 28 : Almost 55 percent of middle-class white American voters, who are struggling financially, favoured Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney over President Barack Obama, according to a new poll.

Obama is still trailing Romney among middle-class white voters who described themselves as struggling to stay afloat, Politico reports.

According to the Washington Post-ABC poll, only 32 percent of white voters preferred to vote for Obama.

The poll revealed that almost 56 percent of white voters, who say they know someone who has been laid off, backed Romney to 32 percent for Obama.

Washington, May 28 : Facebook may launch its first-ever smartphone by next year, a new report has revealed.

According to Stuff. co. nz, Facebook has sought engineers to work on building hardware for a Facebook smartphone, which would mark the social network''s third attempt to develop a smartphone, the report cited.

The news comes as search engine giant Google completed the acquisition of Motorola Mobility for 12.5 billion dollars earlier this week, a move that could help Facebook counter that with its own foray into the smartphone hardware business.

New York, May 28 : The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said Pakistan''s federal and provincial governments should bring to justice those responsible for the May 2010 attacks on Ahmadiyya mosques.

On May 28, 2010, Islamist militants attacked two Ahmadiyya mosques in the city of Lahore with guns, grenades, and suicide bombs, killing 94 people and wounding well over 100.

The Punjabi Taliban had claimed responsibility for the attack. Two men were captured during the attack, but the government has failed to make progress on their trial.

Washington, May 28 : A team of European scientists has created and imaged the smallest possible five-ringed structure - about 100,000 times thinner than a human hair.

A combination of clever synthetic chemistry and state-of-the-art imaging techniques allowed the Scientists at the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), the University of Warwick and IBM Research - Zurich to bring a single molecule to life in a picture.

The scientists decided to make and visualise olympicene whose five-ringed structure was entered on ChemSpider, the RSC's free online chemical database of over 26 million records two years ago.

Washington, May 28 : Senator John McCain has condemned President Barack Obama''s foreign policy and his handling of the Syrian crisis.

"This administration has a feckless foreign policy that abandons American leadership," Politico quoted McCain as saying.

"It cries out for American leadership; American leadership is not there," he added.

McCain also condemned Obama for handling the human rights crisis in Syria.

The Arizona Republican called the U. S.''s response to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad''s killing of civilians a "shameful episode in American history."

Washington, May 28 : U. S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has warned that scheduled congressional cuts to the defense budget in January would be overall "disastrous" for America.

Panetta said the Pentagon "has to play a role in trying to be able to achieve fiscal responsibility," but warned against allowing the cuts, which would take place as a result of the failure to reach a deficit reduction deal last year.