Child abusers using global spam: Italy

 ROME: Italian police warned of a new system by which thousands of Internet users around the world have received spam emails for business offers that actually click through to child abuse material.

"The sites concerned didn't know what was going on. They were small business websites," said Elvira D'Amato, an official at the postal and communications police in Italy, which started the investigation against the spam.

The inquiry is now being coordinated by Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, based in The Hague.

Italian police said the investigation began after a grandmother shopping for her grandchildren online in 2009 clicked to a

Bacteria gobbled methane from BP spill: scientists

WASHINGTON: Bacteria ate nearly all the potentially climate-warming methane that spewed from BP's broken wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico last year, scientists reported on Thursday. Nearly 200,000 tons of methane -- more than any other single hydrocarbon emitted in the accident -- were released from the wellhead, and nearly all of it went into the deep water of the Gulf, researcher David Valentine of the University of California-Santa Barbara said in a telephone interview. Bacteria managed to take in the methane before it could rise from the sea bottom and be released into the atmosphere, but the process contributed to a loss of about 1 million tons of dissolved oxygen in areas southwest of the well. That sounds like a lot of oxygen loss, but it was

Digital health tech on display at electronics show

 LAS VEGAS: Technology companies are getting healthier. And not just their bottom line.

The latest innovations on the digital health care front are on display here at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) alongside the newest smartphones, touchscreen tablet computers and 3D television sets.

For the second year, organizers staged a full-day "Digital Health Summit" featuring sessions such as "The Doctor in Your Hand: Exploring Mobile Health Options" and "Does Technology Motivate People to Stay Healthy?"

Exhibitors said digital technology can help significantly lower health costs, give people the ability to be more actively involved in their care through self-monitoring and improve doctor-patients

Women want rich husbands

 LONDON: A new report suggests that gender equality may be a myth after all – it found that women today still want to 'marry up' – they want husbands who earn more than they do. 

Catherine Hakim of the London School of Economics suggests men dominate the top positions because women simply do not want careers in business. 

"Women's aspiration to marry up, if they can, to a man who is better-educated and higher-earning persists in most European countries,". 

"Women thereby continue to use marriage as an alternative or supplement to their employment careers," she added. 

"It is thus not surprising that wives generally earn

Shweta Tiwari becomes first woman to win Bigg Boss

MUMBAI: Shweta Tiwari emerged the winner of reality show Big Boss Season 4, hosted by actor Salman Khan on the channel Colors. The audience chose the television actor over the three other finalists -- actors Ashmit Patel and Dolly Bindra, and professional wrestler The Great Khali. Khali and Patel were the first and second runners up, respectively. Speculation was rife that Patel would win the title. But television actor Tiwari became the first woman to win the reality show with a prize money of Rs 1 million announced at a grand finale in Lonavala on Saturday night. Tiwari gained popularity for her role as Prerna in Balaji soap Kasautii Zindagii Kay that used to air on Star Plus. All three runners-up took home a bike each,