Washington, April 17 : Scientists at Singapore's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) have become the first to transform the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) into methanol, which is a widely used industrial feedstock and clean-burning biofuel.

The IBN researchers report that by using organocatalysts, they activated CO2 in a mild and non-toxic process to produce methanol, a widely used industrial feedstock and clean-burning biofuel.

Organocatalysts are catalysts that are comprised of non-metallic elements found in organic compounds.

Nairobi/Khartoum - Sudan is prepared to allow new aid agencies into the restive Darfur province to replace those the government kicked out last month following the indictment of President Omar al-Bashir, the Sudan Tribune on Friday quoted US Senator John Kerry as saying.

Kerry, Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, arrived in Sudan for a three-day visit on Wednesday and met several top officials.

Washington, Apr 17 : Paving the way for low-power, high-efficiency electronic memory, scientists have deposited a well-known oxide on silicon to create a ferroelectric state, which could be the key to next-generation memory devices.

For the study, Cornell materials scientist Darrell Schlom took strontium titanate, and deposited it on silicon in such a way that the silicon squeezes it into a special state called ferroelectric.

One can see ferroelectric materials in "smart cards" that are used in many subways and ski resorts, and are made with materials like lead zirconium titanate or strontium bismuth tantalate, which can instantly switch between different memory states using very little electric power.

Washington, April 17 : By combining information from three different telescopes, scientists are learning what happens when some of the largest galaxy clusters in the Universe collide with each other in a cosmic free-for-all.

Galaxy clusters are the largest objects bound by gravity in the Universe.

Washington, Apr. 17 : The Bush administration is reported to have given its approval to the Central Intelligence Agency to use insects as a method of torture against Guantanamo Bay detainees.

The New York Times quotes the Justice Department as saying in a report the methods approved by the Bush administration for extracting information from senior operatives of Al Qaeda in careful detail - like keeping detainees awake for up to 11 straight days, placing them in a dark, cramped box or putting insects into the box to exploit their fears.

Washington, April 17 : A new research has led to the discovery of unusual microbial life under an inland Antarctic glacier, a place where cold, darkness and lack of oxygen would previously have led scientists to believe nothing could survive.

The microbes were found in an unmapped reservoir of briny liquid chemically similar to sea water, but buried under an inland Antarctic glacier.