TOKYO, June 19 /PRNewswire/ --

The 8th United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland has unanimously approved a resolution tabled by Japan, entitled "Elimination of Discrimination Against Persons Affected by Leprosy and their Family Members." 58 countries, including China, have co-sponsored the resolution. The resolution is the result of repeated appeals on the issue by Nippon Foundation Chairman Yohei Sasakawa.

When six day care centers imposed a fine on parents who picked their children up late, tardiness doubled and it stayed high even when the fine was removed.

How can it be that a financial penalty made the problem worse? Parents, it seems, stopped seeing lateness as an imposition on teachers, and instead saw it as something that could be purchased with no moral failing.

A basic tenet of economics is that people always behave selfishly, or as the 18th century philosopher economist David Hume put it, "every man ought to be supposed to be a knave."

Information gleaned from a Greenland ice core by an international science team shows that two huge Northern Hemisphere temperature spikes prior to the close of the last ice age some 11,500 years ago were tied to fundamental shifts in atmospheric circulation.

The ice core showed the Northern Hemisphere briefly emerged from the last ice age some 14,700 years ago with a 22-degree-Fahrenheit spike in just 50 years, then plunged back into icy conditions before abruptly warming again about 11,700 years ago. Startlingly, the Greenland ice core evidence showed that a massive "reorganization" of atmospheric circulation in the Northern Hemisphere coincided with each temperature spurt, with each reorganization taking just one or two years, said the study authors.

The new findings are expected to help scientists improve existing computer models for predicting future climate change as increasing anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere drive up Earth's temperatures globally.

LONDON, June 19 /PRNewswire/ --

- Leading Provider of Web 2.0 Solutions for Financial Institutions and Gaming Organisations Enhance Technology Lead

Push Technology Ltd today announced the immediate commercial release of Diffusion 2.0, a real-time push engine, enhancing its product portfolio of Web 2.0 solutions.

The new market-leading release enables organisations such as financial institutions, on-line gaming companies, spread betting organisations, travel agents and news feed providers to greatly improve their customers user experience by providing real-time, compelling data in a format that requires no browser add-ins or specialist client implementation.

Specifically, the new release includes:-

Since September 11, U.S. politicians have repeatedly reminded us that the journalists in the Arab world are biased against America and the West. A new study in the July 2008 issue of International Journal of Press/Politics says that is not the case.

To provide a snapshot of journalists' attitudes and to create a benchmark for future studies, the researchers surveyed 601 mainstream professional Arab journalists with the goal of understanding how they view both their profession and the events they cover. (1)

While still subject to censorship, Arab journalists have growing aspirations for independence fed by their access to more than 300 free-to-air Arab satellite channels and the rise of blogging on the internet.

Several huge active submarine volcanoes, spreading ridges and rift zones have been discovered northeast of Fiji by a team of Australian and American scientists aboard the Marine National Facility Research Vessel, Southern Surveyor.

On the hunt for subsea volcanic and hot-spring activity, the team of geologists located the volcanoes while mapping previously uncharted areas. Using high-tech multi-beam sonar mapping equipment, digital images of the seafloor revealed the formerly unknown features.

The summits of two of the volcanoes, named 'Dugong', and 'Lobster', are dominated by large calderas at depths of 1100 and 1500 metres.

Are senior doctors who help drug companies sell their drugs independent experts or just drug representatives in disguise, asks Ray Moynihan from the University of Newcastle in Australia, in this week's BMJ.

Pharmaceutical companies regularly sponsor leading specialists with "generous fees to peddle influence" and promote drugs to the profession and the public, writes Moynihan.

Drug companies will pay influential doctors up to $400 an hour to act as key opinion leaders, and some doctors earn more than $25 000 a year in advisory fees.

HATFIELD, England, June 19 /PRNewswire/ --

- Independent Research Backs Ocado as Greenest Grocer

Shopping with Ocado (http://www.ocado.com) is now greener than shopping in a conventional supermarket, even if you are walking to the store.

The claim has been confirmed by independent carbon management consultancy Greenstone as part of a detailed audit of Ocado's environmental business performance.

ROME, June 19 /PRNewswire/ --

- Institute will focus on Policy Solutions to Protect Personal Data in the Digital Age in Italy and the European Union

A group of prominent Italian privacy advocates and jurists have launched the Italian Institute for Privacy (www.istitutoitalianoprivacy.it/en/), a public policy think tank focused on improving privacy protection in the digital age. This broad-based coalition of prominent Italians will focus its efforts on the protection of personal privacy online for citizens in Italy and throughout Europe.