London, September 22: A report commissioned by the American Fisheries Society has warned that the number of North American freshwater species in danger of extinction, in at least part of their range, has nearly doubled since 1989.

According to a report in New Scientist, 33 per cent of fish have seen their conservation status grow more dire, while only 6 per cent have seen an improvement.

“Habitat loss due to humanity’s growing thirst for water is the root cause of the problem,” said Noel Burkhead from the US Geological Survey in Gainesville, Florida, and one of the report’s lead authors.

Taipei - A Taiwan-based Chinese dissident, angry that the Taiwan government has not granted him permanent asylum, on Monday asked Taipei to send him back to China.

Cai Lujun, 40, said he made the request because he can no longer endure the "endless wait" for asylum and the humiliation of living like a "half-ghost, half-human being" in Taiwan.

He said he is not afraid of imprisonment in China for defecting to Taiwan, because it is better being jailed in China than begging for food and waiting indefinitely for asylum in Taiwan, he said in a statement.

Beijing - Chinese President Hu Jintao and US President George W Bush discussed the US financial crisis by telephone on Monday, the Chinese foreign ministry said.

Hu told Bush he hoped that US measures to bolster financial markets would soon have an effect and "lead to a gradual recovery," the ministry said on its website.

Recovery of US financial markets was in the interests of China as well as the United States and would benefit the entire global economy, Hu was quoted as saying.

Washington, Sept. 21: Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has probably seen it all politically in the three weeks since she accepted the Republican party’s vice-presidential nomination.

Her public as well as her personal space has been invaded with out a by or leave, and she is turning out to be the most polarizing figure in American politics.

She may have won quite a few brownie points from the Conservatives, but the Democrats and the Liberals are leaving no stone unturned to expose her as a negative choice.

Washington, September 22: Scientists have again started the great debate on the exact definition of a planet, and have come out with conflicting viewpoints.

Two years ago, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) elected to define the term planet, restricting it to the eight largest bodies orbiting the Sun, and deleting Pluto from the list.

The demotion of Pluto sparked considerable public controversy.

Numerous planetary scientists and astronomers protested the IAU’s definition as not useful, while numerous other planetary scientists and astronomers supported the outcome.

Washington, September 22 : The analysis of a newly discovered fossil skeleton has revealed that before it acquired fins, an ancient fish sported something like fingers that were the precursors to our own digits.

According to a report in Live Science, the fossilized skeleton belonged to Panderichthys, a predatory fish that spanned up to 4 feet (130 cm) and likely dwelled in shallow waters, where it inched along the muddy bottom about 385 million years ago.

While the fossil was discovered in the 1990s by chance in a brick quarry in Latvia in northern Europe, scientists only recently analyzed the fins with computed tomography 
(CT) and found that the right paddle is tipped with four bony extensions.