Beijing  - The wife and children of leading Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng have escaped from close police surveillance and travelled via Thailand to the United States, US-funded Radio Free Asia reported Friday.

Gao's wife, Geng He; their 15-year-old daughter; and 5-year-old son walked into Thailand after fleeing from virtual house arrest in Beijing and crossing a border in southern China, the broadcaster quoted Geng as saying.

"I left China because my family had been under tight surveillance for a long time," she said.

"We experienced in our careers and daily life great hardship and difficulty," Geng added.

Washington, Mar 13: The US in still not willing to support a demand for the restoration of sacked judges, despite a change of government in Washington and, seems eager not to criticise the Zardari Government for its crackdown on opposition activists. It also wants to appear neutral in the Zardari-Sharif imbroglio.

On Thursday, US special envoy Richard Holbrooke conveyed Washington's concerns to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. Holbrooke offered his views and advice to ease the mounting political tension in Pakistan.

Washington, Mar 13 : Researchers at University of California, Irvine, have found that circadian rhythms, our own body clock, regulate energy levels in cells.

According to researchers, the findings could provide greater insights into the bond between the body''s day-night patterns and metabolism. They said that the discovery could help create new ways to treat cancer, diabetes, obesity and a host of related diseases.

Also, Paolo Sassone-Corsi, Distinguished Professor and Chair of Pharmacology, and his colleagues found that the proteins involved with circadian rhythms and metabolism are intrinsically linked and dependent upon each other.

Washington, March 13 : A new research has shown that as a result of increases in aerosols, or airborne pollution, clear sky visibility over land has decreased globally over the past 30 years, turning gray skies to blue.

The research, by a University of Maryland-led team, has compiled the first decades-long database of aerosol measurements over land, making possible new research into how air pollution changes affect climate change.

"Creation of this database is a big step forward for researching long-term changes in air pollution and correlating these with climate change," said Kaicun Wang, assistant research scientist in the University of Maryland''s department of geography and lead author of the research paper.

Washington, Mar 13 : Aspirin may reduce the risk of death in postmenopausal women who have heart disease or who have had a stroke, according to a new study.

The Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Observational Study also provides new insight into aspirin dosing for women, suggesting that a lower dose of aspirin (81 milligrams, or mg) is as effective as a higher dose (325 mg).

Washington, March 13 : An international research team has found evidence that some stars in the center of the Milky Way galaxy have both carbon and oxygen in the dust that surrounds them, which sheds new light on the origin of the elements of life.

"Scientists have long expected to find carbon-rich stars in our galaxy because we know that significant quantities of carbon must be created in many such stars, but carbon had not previously shown up in the clouds of gas around these stars," said Matthew Bobrowsky, an astrophysicist in the University of Maryland's department of physics.