London, Sept 29 (ANI): 'X Factor' judge Cheryl Cole has been offered another one million pounds by music mogul Simon Cowell to stay on the show for its next year's series.

The English singer has been an instant hit on the show, and Cowell is doing his best to retain her as a judge, especially since her band 'Girls Aloud' are in talks for a US tour.

"Cheryl has been an instant hit with viewers and contestants," the Mirror quoted a studio insider as saying.

"She initially signed a one-year deal as she wasn't sure how she would fare and Simon didn't want to commit to an unknown quantity. Now he's desperate to get her for a new series and put pen to paper.

"He realises he will have to fight to keep her as Girls Aloud are in talks to do a US tour. "So Simon needs to act fast and get her to sign before she has unavoidable commitments. As part of the package there's talk of involving her in another of Simon's shows. Cheryl is flattered," the insider added.

If Cole accepts the offer, it would put her ahead of Dannii Minogue, who is now in her second series, by 100,000 pounds. (ANI)

Miranshah (Pakistan), Oct 5 (ANI): If unidentified field agents and informants of the Pakistan Army are to be believed, the dead in yesterday's US drone attack in Waziristan did not include any top tier Al Qaeda figure.

According to them, among the 20 dead were eight Arabs and 14 Taliban, including commander Haqqani who had invited the Arabs for a dinner after Eid.

Besides the commander, his father and two young sons were also killed in the attack, said officials.

Six of the Arabs were buried in the village on Saturday morning, while militants took the other two bodies to an undisclosed location, they said.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that they had no information indicating that any senior Taliban leader was killed. "We found body parts scattered all over the place in the ruins, someone's hand, someone's leg," the Daily Times quoted Bakht Ali, a villager, as saying.

An intelligence official based in the region said that a woman and three children were among those killed.

Army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said that initial reports indicated that 20 or more people were killed and added that there was 'speculation' that many were foreign terrorists, but cautioned that the Army was still awaiting a detailed report. (ANI)

Washington, Sept 12 (ANI): Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found that computer models commonly used to decide who might benefit most from genetic testing under predicted the risk of breast cancer among Asian-American women.

Mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes significantly increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancers, and women who learn they have these mutations are encouraged to seek more frequent cancer screening or may undertake other measures to reduce their cancer risk, such as preventive mastectomy or removal of the ovaries.

"We've been repeatedly surprised when Asian women who the models predicted would probably not have the mutations do in fact have them," said oncologist Allison Kurian, MD, of the university.

She showed that in a head-to-head comparison between whites and Asians, two of the most commonly used models failed in predicting the presence of mutations in almost half of the Asian women studied.

Kurian and her colleagues used two of the most widely used computer models, named BRCAPRO and Myriad II, to predict the presence of the mutations in 200 white women and 200 Asian-American women.

They sequenced the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes of all of the study subjects and compared them to the models' predictions.

The researchers found that the models were highly accurate in predicting the presence of mutations in white women; one program identified 24 of the 25 women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations and the other identified all 25.

However, both programs performed much worse in predicting the 49 Asian women in the study sample with mutations. One program predicted that only 25 of the 49 women would carry mutations, while the other recommended testing of 26 women.

"It's clear that these models are far from foolproof. These results emphasize the need for expert evaluation by a genetics professional to guide all clinical genetic testing," said Kurian.

The study was published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology on Sept 8. (ANI)

Melbourne, Sept 24 (ANI): Bunk beds should carry a danger warning and must never be in the same room as a ceiling fan, urges an expert.

The researchers from Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit have found that nearly one in 10 cases of bunk-related injuries had a child being struck by a ceiling fan while on the top bunk, thereby resulting in severe cuts to the head that required surgery.

The data revealed that about 20 per cent of cases required hospital admission - and in three cases, children aged 2, 3 and 7, survived after falling off a bunk bed and out of window.

The researchers have identified 1020 cases in the nine years from 1999 to 2007.

Emergency specialist Ruth Barker said parents should not put bunk beds in rooms that have ceiling fans.

According to Barker, the bunk-related head injuries accounted for 42 per cent of the cases, including skull fractures.

"Parents are advised to consider alternatives to bunk beds," News.com.au quoted her, as saying.

Barker advised that squeezing two beds in the rooms is a rather safer option than opting for bunk beds.

"If you can squeeze two beds into the room, then it's safer than if you're putting your kids into bunk beds.

"If there is no choice, only purchase a bunk bed which complies with the . . . Australian Standard," she added. (ANI)