Paris - Employees at a French factory belonging to the US auto equipment supplier Molex held two company executives hostage overnight in an attempt to prevent the site from being shut down in the summer, French media reported Tuesday.

Co-manager Marcus Kerriou and the head of human resoruces, Coline Colboc, were forced to spend the night on mattresses in a conference room at the site, near the southern city of Toulouse.

The factory's 283 employees, who are to be made redundant in June, have made a number of demands, including compensation of 100 million euros (130 million dollars).

Washington, Apr 21: Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have come a step closer to using gene therapy for Huntington disease.

The team led by Kelvin J. A. Davies, professor of gerontology in the USC Davis School of Gerontology and professor of biological sciences in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences has found that a form of the gene RCAN1, known as RCAN1-1L, is dramatically decreased in human brains affected by Huntington disease.

Washington, April 21 : A new study conducted by researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) has found that breast cancer cells that don''t respond to tamoxifen may be producing high amounts of cholesterol in order to provide a kind of shield against the drug.

The findings suggest that widely available statin drugs, which reduce cholesterol levels, may be useful for patients with tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer.

Washington, April 21 : Asthma risk is up to six times higher for those with a strong family history, says a new study.

"Our findings showed that a family history of asthma is an important risk factor for asthma, and that familial risk assessments for asthma can help identify people at highest risk for developing asthma," said lead author Tiebin Liu, M. S. P. H., and colleagues of The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Washington, Apr 21: A new study has found that although shoppers are attracted to crowded stores, they are less likely to buy anything from there.

For the study, researchers used Pathtracker, a device attached to the bottom of a shopping cart that emits a signal every five seconds to track shoppers'' paths.

They matched the shopping cart paths with purchase records obtained from scanners to create complete records of consumers'' shopping trips. The data came from a large supermarket in the eastern United States.

Washington, April 21 : Women with psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease, are at higher risk of developing diabetes and hypertension (high blood pressure), says a new study.

Recent studies have indicated that psoriasis is associated with an increased risk of other illnesses and death.

"Systemic inflammation in psoriasis and an increased prevalence of unhealthy lifestyle factors have been independently associated with obesity, insulin resistance and an unfavourable cardiovascular risk profile," the authors said.