London, Oct 21: Eight out of ten parents think that the best disciplinary technique for badly behaved toddlers is not to smack but to ignore them, according to a new report.

The report, published by the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships at the University of Edinburgh, suggests that raising the voice or shouting is the next most effective action.

The report is an analysis of data from the Growing Up in Scotland (GUS) study and comes weeks after MPs voted against enforcing a UK-wide smacking ban.

The GUS study, commissioned by the Scottish Government, surveyed parents of 8,000 children about issues affecting their parenting style.

Hollywood comic actor Denis Leary has stirred up quite a storm with his latest book, “Why We Suck: a Feel-Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid.” The book has even raised the hackles of his Hollywood colleagues, for a passage in his new book where he says the reason autism is on the rise in the U.S. is because there are “inattentive mothers and competitive dads” out there and autism diagnoses "help explain away the deficiencies of (parents') junior morons."

London - It is the job of David Smith to keep on top of his box of index cards marked "serious buyers."

But as tight loans and tumbling prices keep a stranglehold on Britain's once buoyant property market, hardly any of his clients bother to ring back.

Estate agents like Smith are nostalgic about the days of the property boom when interested viewers would rush to compete for appointments to see the best properties as soon as they were advertised.

Britain's obsession with home ownership in a market distorted and overheated by a drastic disproportion between supply and demand has come to a sudden stop with the credit crunch.

Sydney - Kevin Rudd needed something to give his poll ratings pep and it came in the ghastly form of a stock market meltdown that wilted the pension plans of millions of Australians.

Now, the approval ratings of the 50-year-old former diplomat, a year into his first spell as prime minister, suggest he could walk on water.

"It puts him into the 70-per-cent range and only one other prime minister has done that," said pollster John Stirton, noting that only Bob Hawke, 36 years ago, was a more popular prime minister.

People tend to rally round their leader in a crisis. It's happened to Britain's Gordon Brown. For Rudd, as for Brown, the acclamation is particularly pleasing.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service has announced that it has recalled 2,758 pounds of ground beef from Vermont Livestock, Slaughter and Processing Co., LLC, a Ferrisburg, Vt., firm, because it may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.