Washington, September 10 : Scientists have said that microbes that break down oil and petroleum are more diverse than thought earlier, suggesting hydrocarbons were used as an energy source early in Earth’s history.

These microbes can change the composition of oil and natural gas and can even control the release of some greenhouse gases.

Understanding the role of microbes in consuming hydrocarbons may therefore help us access their role in the natural control of climate change.

“Hydrocarbons like oil and natural gas are made up of carbon and hydrogen, they are among the most abundant substances on Earth,” said Dr Friedrich Widdel from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany.

Peshawar, Sept 10 :Pakistan has always played a double game as far as extending cooperation with the US in catching Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden (after 9/11 attacks) is considered, said a detailed article published in the Washington Post.

It quoted Afrasiab Khattak, a Peshawar-based Pashtun politician, as saying that Pakistani forces would occasionally help the CIA capture second-string al-Qaeda figures, but to meet the objective of keeping the aid money flowing from Washington.

New York, Sept. 10 : Republican vice-presidential nominee and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has been criticized for claiming that she turned down federal earmark spending for the "bridge to nowhere" in her native Alaska.

"I told Congress ''thanks but no thanks,'' to that bridge to nowhere," Palin has said over and over on the campaign trail.

But according to the Obama campaign, Palin never rebuffed Congress.

The facts according to a CBS report are as follows:

Washington, September 10 : Scientists have determined that oil seed rape grown for biofuel in Ireland could help clean up contaminated soils.

Using plants to help clean up heavily polluted soils has been successfully tested for many years and shown to be a cheap and environmentally friendly way to clear heavy metals such as arsenic, copper, zinc and chromium from contaminated land.

The main problem with the method has been the amount of time it takes to grow successive crops of plants to clean up an area.

Now, scientists may have come up with a solution by combining heavy metal tolerant bacteria with plants used to make biofuels such as oil seed rape.

London, Sept. 10 : Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin is of British origin.

According to The Sun, her family tree can be traced back to 18th century Norwich.

Historians revealed on Tuesday that Palin’s great, great, great, great, great grandfather Robert Gower was baptized in the Norfolk city in 1723.

According to ancestry. co. uk, Gower, who is from her mum’s side of the family, then left for the United States in the 18th Century, and his son James was born in Maine.

Washington, Sept 10 : US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that it was unacceptable to see that blacks had negligible representation in the State Department. Lamenting about the lack of blacks in the US administration, like herself, she wished to see more blacks in the State Department.

Rice is the second black person to become secretary of state after Colin Powell.