Washington, Apr 30 : School-based drug education programmes can significantly curb risky behaviour and drug abuse in teenagers, suggests a new study.

The researchers found that young adults who had been exposed to a popular drug abuse prevention program as adolescents were less likely to engage in risky sexual behavior five to seven years later.

Washington, Apr 30 : English comedian Ricky Gervais’ children book series ‘Flanimals’ is set to be converted into a 3-D animation film.

The 47-year-old actor will also lend his voice to the lead character of the film.

The four-volume series, illustrated by Rob Steen, encompasses a world inhabited by 50 species of ugly and misshapen creatures.

Gervais'' character, a pudgy, perspiring purple creature, goes on a mission to change the world.

"It will be great to play a short, fat, sweaty loser for a change. A real stretch," Variety quoted Gervais as saying.

Washington, Apr 30 : How the brain gives meaning to letters on a page has been a mystery for scientists. Now, a new study has tried to solve the puzzle.

Neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center have found that an area known to be important for reading in the left visual cortex contains neurons that are specialized to process written words as whole word units.

Washington, Apr. 30 : Baffled and frustrated Republicans say they don’t know how to counter or combat President Barack Obama.

“Our base is getting frustrated,” said one top Republican at the Capitol.

Even among other Republicans, the question of how to deal with Obama has lead to mixed messages.

House Republican leaders wrote a letter to Obama this week, praising him for his “call for a new era of bipartisanship in Washington.”

“The GOP is disjointed, because we have no national message machine,” lamented a party official who is privy to the media strategy.

Washington, April 30 : A new study examining the mechanisms underlying transmission of combined avian-human viruses has shed light on how virus outbreaks like that of the current swine flu come about.

The study, conducted by University of Maryland researchers, suggests that the ease with which a dangerous avian influenza virus can cause a human flu pandemic may be greater than previously thought.

In his study, associate Professor Daniel Perez from the University of Maryland has shown that after an avian and human-like virus combine, the virus requires relatively few mutations to spread rapidly between mammals by respiratory droplets.

Washington, Apr 30 : If you''ve ever wanted to watch Oasis'' Noel Gallagher singing in the shower, then here’s you chance.

The singer has been filmed singing in the shower for pal Bono’s new (Red)Wire online magazine.

Noel agreed to perform a solo rendition of the band’s Waiting for The Rapture in a shower room at New York’s Madison Square Garden for the new issue of the downloaded subscription service, which went live in December (09), reports Contactmusic.