Nairobi - Kenyan police have set up a 24-hour guard outside the home of US presidential candidate Barack Obama's grandmother after thieves targeted her home, reports said Friday.

Obama's grandmother Sarah, 86, said burglars broke in through her kitchen door in the western Kenyan village of Kogelo and attempted to steal a solar panel from her roof.

Local police chief Johnston Ipara told the Daily Nation that two tents had been set up outside Sarah Obama's home until a permanent police station was built nearby.

Washington, September 12 : An analysis has been completed of the global carbon cycle and climate for a 70,000 year period in the most recent Ice Age, showing a remarkable correlation between carbon dioxide levels and surprisingly abrupt changes in climate.

The findings shed further light on the fluctuations in greenhouse gases and climate in Earth’s past, and appear to confirm the validity of the types of computer models that are used to project a warmer climate in the future, according to researchers.

Washington, September 12 : Using the strongest materials known to man, scientists in the US are building the most powerful electromagnet in the world, one that won''t blow up a split second after it''s turned on.

According to a report in Discovery News, the entire magnet will be a combination of coil sets weighing nearly 18,000 pounds and powered by jolts from a massive 
1,200-megajoules motor generator.

Once activated, the new magnet should be about two million times more powerful than the average refrigerator magnet.

Washington, September 12 : Technology under development at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) could offer new hope to farmers in drought-affected and marginal areas by enabling crops to grow using salty groundwater.

The technology is being developed by Associate Professor Greg Leslie, a chemical engineer at UNSW’s UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology, who is working along with the University of Sydney.

The technology uses reverse-osmosis membranes to turn previously useless, brackish groundwater into a valuable agricultural resource.

Washington, Sep 12 : Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, in her first interview since becoming the Republican vice-presidential candidate, said that she never hesitated to take the spot on the ticket and that she’s ready for the job of vice president and, if necessary, the President.

“I’m ready,” Palin answered without any hesitation in an interview with ABC News on Thursday.

Palin said she had felt no doubt about accepting Senator John McCain’s offer to run as his vice-presidential nominee.

Washington, Sept 12 : While it is believed that biological and societal factors influence choice of partners, a new study has suggested that immunity traits may be more involved in selecting a mate.

The study by scientists in China, France, and the United Kingdom have shown that the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC), a large genomic region involved in immune response, influences mating selections and that this may be mediated by preferences based on body odor.

It was shown in some previous studies that humans have a tendency to prefer MHC-dissimilar mates, encouraging heterozygosity at MHC loci in offspring and resulting in improved immune response.