London, Nov 17 : BioBeer might have been publicised as being capable of boosting life expectancy and avoiding illness, but it also has a rather ‘sour’ point—it tastes lousy.

BioBeer is a genetically modified beer, which was produced by student researchers for a competition in Texas that tests GM products.

It is brewed with a specific yeast that produces resveratrol, a chemical in red wine believed to protect against heart disease, diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer’s.

Tehran - Tehran remained noncommittal on the just-concluded Iraqi security pact with the United States and said Monday that it would delay commenting until after the pact was approved by the Iraqi parliament.

The Iraqi cabinet on Sunday approved the final version of a security pact with the United States.

Iran has several times voiced its opposition to the security pact and called on the US to withdraw its forces from Iraq and allow the Iraqi government to take care of state affairs.

Tokyo - Japan's economy shrank at an annualized rate of 0.4 per cent in real terms in the July-September period, the government said Monday.

The gross domestic product (GDP) fell 0.1 per cent during the three months from the previous quarter, marking the second quarterly drop, the Cabinet Office said.

Looking at the GDP for the July-September quarter, Japanese Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano said Monday that the nation's economy is in a recession, which means that it shrank two quarters in a row.

London, Nov 17: French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s supporters, who are worried about his inclination towards socialism, believe that his glamorous wife Carla Bruni is behind the shift towards the left.

Sarkozy, famed for his “zero tolerance” policing as interior minister, was once derided on the left as a dangerous right-winger.

But lately he has been showing signs of an ideological rethink— by attacking “fat cats” and the “dictatorship of the market”. He has pledged to create 100,000 state-subsidised jobs.

Dhaka - An Indian boarder guard Sunday night shot down three Bangladesh nationals in a remote village of the country's northern frontier district of Panchagarh, local media reported Monday.

Officials at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters in Dhaka said that the Border Security Force of India killed the three innocent villagers, including an infant and her mother.

They said villagers captured a member of the Indian guard after the firing incident in the dead of night. The BSF man was reported to be drunk.