| Business News |
HP in talks to buy EDS to compete with IBM
(Reuters)
 Reuters - Hewlett-Packard Co
is in talks to buy technology outsourcing company
Electronic Data Systems Corp for $12 billion to $13
billion in a deal which would vault it to a close second to IBM
in technology services.
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AIG sees no need to honor ex-CEO request to delay AGM
(Reuters)
 Reuters - Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, former chief
executive of American International Group , has said the
insurer is in "crisis" and urged a delay in its annual general
meeting scheduled for Wednesday, according to a letter he sent
to the board.
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Australia's Westpac bids $17.6 billion for St George
(Reuters)
 Reuters - Westpac Banking Corp Ltd
launched a $17.6 billion all-share bid for smaller rival St
George Bank Ltd in a tie-up that would create
Australia's biggest bank by market value.
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Nissan operating profit falls 14 percent
(Reuters)
 Reuters - Nissan Motor Co (7201.T) reported a 13.7
percent drop in fourth quarter operating profit on Tuesday and
forecast a sharp fall in annual profits this year due to a
weaker dollar, rising commodities prices and sinking U.S.
demand.
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SocGen net profit falls 23 pct, beats consensus
(Reuters)
 Reuters - Societe Generale , the French
bank hit by the world's worst rogue trader scandal, reported a
23.4 percent fall in first quarter net profit although earnings
came in above the average market forecast.
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Survey: 1 in 10 boomers borrowing for everyday expenses
(AP)
AP - The economic downturn is hitting roughly one in 10 middle-aged and older Americans especially hard, compelling them to borrow money for everyday living expenses and to seek help from family, friends or charities, according to a survey released Tuesday by the AARP.
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| Dutch study unlocks key to firm tomatoes - 09, May 2008 |
By Michael Kahn
LONDON (Reuters) - Dutch scientists said on Friday they have identified a key gene that protects tomatoes against a common fungus that causes the plants to wilt.
The fungus Fusarium oxysporum can make a compound that overcomes two of three genes in tomatoes that help ward off disease.
But a third tomato gene targets the protein and keeps tomatoes firm, said Petra Houterman, a molecular biologist at the University of Amsterdam who worked on the study.
She said her team's report in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Pathogens provides insight on how certain types of fungus do their damage and could lead to more robust varieties of tomato and other crops.
"It leads to a better understanding of how resistance works," Houterman said in a telephone interview. "It could be used one day by crop breeders to understand what genes are most important to make a species more valuable."
Farmers often cross-breed their plants to grow varieties better able to withstand drought and disease.
One of the first questions for the Dutch researchers was why the fungus infected one tomato plant but not another. To answer this, they studied the xylem vessels that carry nutrients throughout a plant, and where the fungus makes its home.
They found that a protein called Avr1 helps the fungus overcome two of three of the plant's resistance genes, Houterman said.
(c) 2008 Reuters
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| Other news from Science category: |
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The parents of two 10-year-old boys who believe vaccines caused their sons to develop autism brought their case to U.S. federal court on Monday, arguing a mercury preservative in the shots caused a rare reaction.
More
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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Adult women who were breast-fed as infants may have a lower risk of developing breast cancer than those who were not breast-fed, unless they were first-born, study findings suggest.
More
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CHICAGO (Reuters) - The secret behind growing large tomatoes lies not in the fertilizer or the perfect soil conditions, but in just a few genetic changes that over time have resulted in tomatoes 1,000 times bigger than their wild ancestors, U.S. researche
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PUERTO MONTT, Chile (Reuters) - A towering plume of ash from an erupting volcano in Chile's remote Patagonia could rain down on the surrounding area and cause devastating damage, a volcano expert warned on Friday.
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BEIJING (Reuters) - A deadly strain of hand, foot and mouth disease has killed two more children in China, bringing the death toll in recent weeks to 32, state media said on Friday, as it praised a doctor who alerted authorities to the epidemic.
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PUERTO MONTT/FUTALEUFU, Chile (Reuters) - Chile on Thursday ordered holdout residents to flee from an erupting volcano in the remote region of Patagonia and vowed to force them out if they refuse to obey.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - A new company hopes drivers will kick the oil habit by brewing ethanol at home that won't spike food prices.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bits of chewed-up or burned seaweed discarded more than 14,000 years ago confirm that people were in Chile at least that long ago and shed light on what their culture was like, researchers reported on Thursday.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Orchids that mimic female wasps may not only waste the time of the male wasps they lure into spreading their pollen -- they also seduce them into wasting valuable sperm, Australian researchers reported on Wednesday.
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PUERTO MONTT, Chile (Reuters) - Chile ordered hold-out residents to flee from an erupting volcano in the remote region of Patagonia on Thursday and vowed to remove them by force if they refuse to obey.
More
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| Software News |
Microsoft software gives free tours of space
(Reuters)
 Reuters - Any Star Trek fan knows that space
travel is not always easy, but Microsoft Corp wants to make
traveling the "final frontier" as simple as turning on your
computer.
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SOA Software buys LogicLibrary
(InfoWorld)
InfoWorld - Matching up critical components in the SOA space, SOA Software, which provides SOA governance automation, said Monday it has acquired SOA repository and governance vendor LogicLibrary.
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Microsoft readies service packs for dev tools
(InfoWorld)
InfoWorld - Microsoft released Monday beta versions of separate service packs for the Visual Studio 2008 software development platform and the accompanying .Net Framework 3.5, a Microsoft official said in a blog.
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Google's Friend Connect To Spread Social Data
(TechWeb)
TechWeb - InformationWeek - The software is part of an emerging set of technologies like OpenID, OAuth, OpenSocial, and the data access APIs published by Facebook, Google, and MySpace.
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Three Charged in Dave & Buster's Hacking Job
(PC World)
PC World - It may not have been the greatest hack ever, but police say the malicious software sneaked onto restaurant chain Dave &...
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Windows XP SP3 Woes Especially Affect AMD Systems
(NewsFactor)
NewsFactor - Users who thought the Windows XP operating system would be more reliable than its younger sibling Vista are being buffeted by reports that the latest update for XP, Service Pack 3, has its own problems.
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