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According to a new study, US girls are reaching puberty earlier than ever, a trend that raises some health concerns. The study, which was conducted in New York's East Harlem, the Cincinnati metropolitan area, and the San Francisco Bay area, showed that by age eight, 27% of girls had begun puberty and showed breast development. By age seven, 15% of girls were developing breasts. There were differences among races. By age 7, 10.4% of white girls had reached puberty, up from 5% in a 1997 study. In contrast, 23.4% of African-Americans and 14.9%

Ramadan, the holy month of Islam, is scheduled to begin today in India. The new moon, which marks the beginning of Ramadan, was observed across the nation. Maulana Mufti Mukkaram Ahmed, Shahi Imam of Delhi's Fatehpur Sikri mosque, announced that Ramadan would begin from today. The new moon was observed in states including Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh. The new moon could not be observed in Delhi and Mumbai as the sky was covered by clouds but it was seen nearby. Ramadan is observed by fasting from sunrise to suns

Wikinews has obtained new details from police investigating the murder of a convicted sex offender in his prison cell. 44-year-old Robert Coello was, apparently, kicked to death in his cell at Her Majesty's Prison (HMP) Grendon, Buckinghamshire, England. Prison staff found Coello lying in a pool of blood on the first of this month; he was rushed to hospital, but died later that day. He was serving a minimum sentence of seven years for sixteen sex offences against a child, including four rapes. The death is thought to be the first in the hist

A new study suggests that plants can adapt to changing climatic conditions more efficiently than previously thought, making the onset of climate change less of a concern for plant species around the world. Jodrell Laboratory in the London Botanical Gardens has discovered that plants can alter specific components of their genetic make-up to suit rising temperatures and varying levels of rainfall that would otherwise take hundred of years to develop through natural selection, via a process known as epigenetics. This newly discovered ability sugg

Letitia A. Long became director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency on Monday, becoming the first female director of a major intelligence agency in US history. Long has been in government service for over three decades, and her former positions include second in command at the Defense Intelligence Agency, deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, and deputy director of Naval Intelligence. Long was sworn in at the NGA's under-construction Springfield, Virginia campus, where she hailed the recently created NGA's accomplishme

Actress Mia Farrow and Carole White have testified in former-Liberian president Charles Taylor's war crimes trial at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague, The Netherlands. Farrow and White's testimonies contradict supermodel Naomi Campbell's testimony from last week. White said Campbell was "mildly flirtatious" with Taylor at a dinner in South Africa in 1997. Taylor, she alleged, told Campbell he would send her diamonds. White continued to say Campbell communicated with Taylor and awaited the diamond. Campbell was "very excited" ab

A family of six were injured at Flat Rock Bridge Family Resort and campground in Lebanon, Maine after a severe thunderstorm caused trees to topple, with one landing on a tent. A 10-year-old girl was critically injured after a tree fell on the tent she was sleeping in. Witnesses say the girl was pinned under the tree for at least 10 minutes before they were able to remove it. Witnesses also say the day was beautiful and sunny, but at around 6:00 p.m. (EDT) a storm rolled in, darkening the sky, followed by heavy winds and rain. Witnesses describ

The Indonesian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has announced that the government will be banning pornographic sites in the country. The announcement comes before the Islamic holiday of Ramadan. The ministry conducted a technical test of the banning program with the six largest internet service providers in Indonesia — Telkom, Telkomsel, Indosat, IM2, Bakrie Telecom, and XL Axiata. The ministry is optimistic that their ban will make 80% of pornographic sites inaccessable in the Southeast Asian country. The People's Repub

JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater, who allegedly cursed at a passenger on an airplane intercom, quit his job, grabbed some beer from a beverage cart, and exited the airplane using an emergency slide, was released on $2,500 bail by New York City police Tuesday night. Slater's intercom cursing and dramatic exit was apparently provoked by a passenger who swore at Slater and hit him with her luggage. Defense attorney Howard Turman said that "The woman [who hit Slater] was outraged and cursed him out a great deal." According to prosecutors, S

Vinay Deolalikar, a mathematician who works for HP Labs, claims to have proven that P is not equal to NP. The problem is the greatest unsolved problem in theoretical computer science and is one of seven problems in which the Clay Mathematics Institute has offered million dollar prizes to the solutions. The question of whether P equals NP essentially asks whether there exist problems which take a long time to solve but whose solutions can be checked quickly. More formally, a problem is said to be in P if there is a program for a Turing machin

A gold mine collapse in Copiapó, Atacama Region, Chile has trapped 33 miners since last Thursday. Another collapse occurred on Saturday, that provoked temporary suspension of the rescue works. Rescue efforts were first focused on a ventilation shaft, but attempts to reach the miners failed. Rescuers have been drilling into the mine since Sunday. "The situation is very complex, the mine continues to have collapses because there is a geological fault-line," said Sebastián Piñera, President of Chile, who "pledged to do everything possible to get

Militants attacked three Indian Army vehicles this morning in the Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir. A passenger bus was fired in this attack and a woman was killed and nine others were injured. R. K. Jalla, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Rajouri, said that militants marched to the hilltops and attacked three Army trucks in which the Commanding officer (CO) of the Rashtriya Rifles was travelling. Soldiers of the Indian Army rushed to the spot when the report of the attack arrived. The soldiers fired at the militants to defend the