69,000 Indian babies born on New Year Day

United Nations: The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) has estimated that nearly 386,000 babies were born on New Year's Day, with India heading the list with 69,070. More than 90 per cent of the births took place in less developed regions. Unicef reported that globally over half the births were estimated to have taken place in nine countries: India (69,070), China (44,760), Nigeria (20,210), Pakistan (14,910), Indonesia (13,370), USA (11,280), Congo (9,400), Ethiopia (9,020) and Bangladesh (8,370). ians

NASA-inspired boost for wheat produce       

Melbourne: Inspired by NASA's experiments to grow wheat in space, Australian scientists have developed the world's first 'speed breeding' technique that can boost the production of the crop by up to three times. The NASA experiments involved using continuous light on wheat, which triggered early reproduction in the plants. The speed breeding technique has largely been used for research purposes but is now being adopted by industry. PTI

No WhatsApp on these smartphones       

San Francisco: Facebook-owned mobile messaging app WhatsApp has stopped working on smartphones that support BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, Windows Phone 8.0 and older platforms. "These platforms don't offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app's features in the future," a spokesperson said. WhatsApp would also end support for Nokia S40 after December 31, 2018 and Android versions 2.3.7 and older after February 1, 2020. IANS