Washington, Nov 14 : National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers have decoded the mysterious mechanisms behind the high-temperature superconductors that industry hopes will find wide use in next-generation systems for storing, distributing and using electricity.

The advance could pave the way for next-generation systems for storing, distributing and using electricity.

Many materials become superconductors at temperatures approaching absolute zero, capable of carrying vast amounts of electrical current with no resistance. In such low-temperature superconductors, magnetism can actually shatter the fragile superconductive state.

London, Nov 14 : Aberglaslyn Pass, a narrow gorge that the Glaslyn river has carved through Mount Snowdon, has been named by the National Trust website as the ‘Finest View in Britain’.

The wilderness has been voted as the best view in the UK out of a top ten of mountains, castles and beaches around the country, reports the Independent.

Second on the list was Borrowdale in Cumbria followed by St Michael''s Mount, Cornwall, in the third place.

Holywell Bay, Cornwall, was fourth and rounding off the top five was the white cliffs of Dover.

The top ten views as voted by the public on the National Trust website are:

1. The Aberglaslyn Pass (Snowdonia, Wales)
2. Borrowdale (Keswick, Cumbria)

Washington, Nov 14 : A team of American researchers has moved a step closer to realising much advanced technology for satellite communications and solar power generation by finding a way to slow down the cooling of electrons in nanocrystals, which can lead to more efficient photovoltaic devices.

University of Chicago researchers claim that they have successfully induced electrons in the nanocrystals of semiconductors to cool more slowly by forcing them into a smaller volume, something that was first theorized in 1990.

Washington, Nov. 14 : A resilient and determined al Qaeda will continue to pose a threat to the United States and other countries inimical to interests from its safe haven in Pakistan, the chief of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has warned.

The Washington Post quoted Michael V. Hayden as saying that al-Qaeda remains the single greatest threat to the United States.

Munich - The alleged kingpin of the main Russian organized-crime family in Germany's Bavaria state went on trial Friday.

Lawyers for the alleged mobsters showered the court with motions to stop the trial. Security at the Munich courthouse was strict.

The defendant, 39, was indicted with running a criminal organization.

Two alleged mafia lieutenants, aged 31 and 30, are accused of being members of the crime syndicate, which allegedly ran protection rackets, trafficked drugs and spread counterfeit money in the prosperous state starting in 2001.

Washington, Nov 14 : The Planetary Society has outlined a vigorous new approach to space exploration for the consideration of the new U. S. Administration and Congress to develop a flexible space program that is designed to achieve more, cost less, and engage the entire world.