Washington, September 6: A new study has suggested that supercontinents like Pangaea can form when a huge plume of hot rock from deep inside Earth wells up between the continental plates, pushing them apart until all Earth's landmasses collide.

According to a report in National Geographic News, this is the finding from a new study that suggests-contrary to accepted theory-that such a process formed the supercontinent Pangaea 300 million years ago.

Scientists believe that Earth's shifting plates have been forming and breaking up supercontinents for billions of years, and traditionally they thought that suction is the driving force.

Washington, September 6: Archaeologists have found prehistoric graves with an unusual abundance of phallic figurines and oddly arranged human remains in Israel, which date back to the Stone Age.

According to a report in National Geographic News, the findings were made nar Nazerat (Nazareth), called Kfar HaHoresh, which dates to between 8,500 and 6,750 B. C.

The site was uninhabited and probably served surrounding villages as a centralized burial and cult center, said excavation leader Nigel Goring-Morris of Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology.

Archaeologists have primarily found female symbolic figurines in other burials of this time period.

Washington  - US stocks edged higher on Friday thanks to gains in the financial sector, upstaging a rise in monthly unemployment and a record rate of home foreclosures.

Shares of investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc improved nearly 7 per cent on reports it may sell some of its assets in order to raise capital. Financial shares improved overall amid speculation the Federal Reserve would hold off raising rates at its next meeting.

Washington  - The number of homes in foreclosure has reached a new record in the United States as the country's housing crisis continues to inflict damage on the wider US economy, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Friday.

The number of new mortgage holders entering foreclosure in the second quarter stood at 1.19 per cent of all US mortgages - the first time the rate has topped 1 per cent in the 29-year-history of the association's record keeping.

Washington, Sept. 5: Alaska Governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin almost managed to overhaul Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in terms of attracting the number of television viewers to hear her acceptance speech on Wednesday night at the party’s convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Palin drew 37 million viewers, just 1.1 million viewers shy of Obama’s record-breaking speech in Denver on August 28, according to recent Nielsen Media Research ratings.

Washington, Sept. 5: In a new 487-page book that is to be released on September 8, noted Washington Post journalist and author Bob Woodward has termed US President George W. Bush "the nation’s most divisive figure."

In the book titled “"The War Within", which is the fourth installment in a series of books that he has written on the president, Woodward criticizes Bush for failing to fulfill what some might view as impossible expectations.