New York, Sep 28 : US presidential candidates Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama differed on Pakistan, especially over US attacks into Pakistani territory, a policy that Islamabad had sharply protested. 

During the first of a series of televised debates ahead of the November election, McCain emphasized the need for Pakistan’s support said, he would not publicly state a policy of attacking militants in Pakistan, saying Pakistani support Democratic rival, Obama, responded that the United States should attack militants if Pakistan were unwilling to do so highlighting a difference over Pakistan policy. 

Washington, Sept 28 : Comic characters Donald Duck, Wonder Woman, Batman are set to enter the academic curriculum of Dalhousie University next year. 

The University is set to introduce a new course Comics and Cartoons that will trace the history of cartoons and comics, from 18th- and 19th-century political propaganda to the golden age of Marvel and DC.

“The department was looking for this kind of a course for a while, since before I came here,” said Anthony Enns, cultural theorist and Dalhousie professor. 

“There are many different ways to teach (this course),” said Prof. Enns. 

Washington, Sept 28 : Researchers from Lancashire, England, and Chicago, IL, have discovered that animals farmed for meat are the main source of bacteria responsible for food poisoning.

They suggested that 97 pct of the foodbourne illnesses are caused by bacteria typically found in chicken and livestock.

While studying campylobacteriosis cases, the research team found that 97 pct of the cases in Lancashire, UK, were caused by bacteria typically found in chicken and livestock. 

The study was based on DNA-sequence comparison of thousands of bacteria collected from human patients and animal carriers.

New York, Sept 28 : Nepal Prime Minister Prachanda met Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon at the UN Headquarters here on Saturday. 

According to the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United Nations, the UN Secretary General assured of the United Nations'' continued support in the days ahead and expressed his readiness to assist in the socio-economic development in Nepal. 

He also appreciated Nepal''s continued participation in the UN peacekeeping operations while Prachanda reiterated Nepal''s commitment to continue providing troops to UN peacekeeping missions at the call of the UN.

Washington, September 28 : Thanks to an automated system developed by a team of Princeton University computer scientists, archaeologists in Greece will now be able to virtually reconstruct wall paintings that hold valuable clues to the ancient culture of Thera, an island civilization that was buried under volcanic ash more than 3,500 years ago.

According to David Dobkin, the Phillip Y. Goldman ''86 Professor in Computer Science and dean of the faculty at Princeton, the new technology has the potential to change the way people do archaeology.

Washington, September 28 : Mechanical engineers at the University of Strathclyde''s Energy Systems Research Unit (ESRU) in Scotland is developing a dual-rotor turbine connected to the seabed by a cable that rides the tide like a kite on a windy day.

According to a report in Scientific American, the ESRU team''s goal is to create a device that literally goes with the flow rather than resting on the sea bottom like an underwater windmill - a model already being developed by a handful of companies. 

The kite and cable model is designed to facilitate placing tidal turbines in deep water, where the stronger current has the potential for providing reater power but also makes it extremely difficult to plant a turbine in the seabed.