In the journal Human Immunology, Drucker and colleagues at the University of Manchester describe their post-mortem study of tissue specimens from 25 babies whose deaths were attributed to SIDS.

They found that a specific variant in VEGF and one in IL-6 were significantly over-represented in the SIDS group compared with a control group.

The researchers note that the study group was not the same as the one in which the IL-10 findings had been made. However, they point out that if a given infant had all three mutations, the odds of being a SIDS victim would be greater than 14.

Exposure to cigarette smoke and other hazards such as being put to sleep in the "wrong" position would increase the SIDS risk even more.

"Being able to identify high risk babies could help target preventive measures," noted Drucker, "and laboratory tests some time ago found that a commercially available immunoglobulin should help protect babies."

"It will now be possible," he concluded, "to define a suitable cohort of at-risk babies for a clinical trial."

"This is a big gift to the refinery industry," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, an environmental watchdog group. "They are saying let's close our eyes and pretend pollution is not happening."

In a news release, the Environmental Protection Agency said the proposed rules will make it easier for owners and operators to determine whether changes to a plant or facility require installing pollution control equipment. The rules largely affect oil refineries and pharmaceutical and chemical plants.

U.S. refineries are planning to increase oil refining capacity by 1.4 million barrels a day and will do so under strict environmental standards, said Bob Slaughter, president of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association.

"The new EPA proposals will help the industry respond to these official calls for increased refining capacity," Slaughter said.

Federal law sets the pollution levels that have to be reached before pollution controls, such as scrubbers, must be used. When changes are planned for pollution producing plants or facilities, operators must determine whether the changes increase pollution over the federal levels and apply for permits to make the changes.

The proposed rules essentially change how industry adds up how much pollution is being produced.

For example, one proposed rule change would allow operators to consider pollution levels of equipment separately in determining whether its pollution level has gone up. Under current law, the total level produced by the affected equipment is considered.

The changes "will streamline the permitting process that manufacturers and energy or power producers have to undergo prior to upgrading a facility," said Bryan Brendle, a lobbyist for the National Manufacturers Association.

Brendle said current laws are so complex that they are an impediment to companies that want to install more energy-efficient equipment to save energy costs and reduce air emissions.

John Walke, Natural Resources Defense Council's clean air director, said EPA is doing little more than proposing accounting gimmicks that allow industry to evade installing pollution controls by considering smaller pollution amounts, rather than pollution from an entire plant.

"It's a way to allow industry to pollute more without cleaning up," Walke said.

EPA must allow 60 days for public comment on its proposed rules before making the rules permanent.

"Men are more likely to support a country going to war. Men are more likely sign up for the military and men are more likely to lead groups in more autocratic, militaristic ways than women," he added.

Van Vugt said the finding is consistent with results from different behavioral science disciplines.

In experiments with 300 university men and women students, Van Vugt and his team gave the volunteers small sums of money which they could either keep or invest in a common fund that would be doubled and equally divided. None of the students knew what the others were doing.

Both sexes cooperated in investing in the fund. But when the groups were told they were competing against other universities, the males were more eager to invest rather than keep their money while the number of women contributing remained the same.

"We all know males are more aggressive than females," Van Vugt said, adding that co-operation is needed to establish institutions and governments and to wage wars.

"Male co-operation is a double-edged sword," he added.

Ghanem was arrested Thursday at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after Transportation Security Administration officers detected the knife "artfully concealed" in the book, airport spokesman Michael Conway said.

Someone had carved out the inside of the book and placed the knife inside it, said Ghanem's attorney, Nabih Ayad.

"He said he didn't know where the knife came from," Ayad told the Detroit Free Press.

If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

Ghanem was born in Yemen, a republic bordering Saudi Arabia whose 18 million residents are primarily Muslim. He is now a legal permanent resident of the United States and was returning to Yemen to get married, Ayad said.

Ghanem works as a busboy and lives in Hamtramck with family members, but he had a one-way ticket to Yemen, authorities said.

"Mad honey disease has the potential to cause death if untreated," say the researchers. "Because of the increasing preference for natural products, intoxication induced by consumption of honey will increase in the future."

Just a spoonful of the wrong honey can cause problems, according to researchers, who report their findings this week in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.

Mad honey poisoning is most prevalent in honey from the Black Sea region of Turkey. Compounds called grayanotoxins, found in the nectar of rhododendrons, mountain laurels and azaleas, are thought to be responsible for the disease. Though harmless to bees, they are psychoactive and poisonous to humans. Affected honey is said to have a very bitter taste.

The Herald Sun last week revealed the latest Bratz Babyz range included sexually provocative baby dolls dressed in leather and lingerie.

The padded Bratz "bralettes" were among more than 30 different junior bra styles starting at size six on sale at a city Target store visited by the Herald Sun yesterday.

The Australian Family Association warned parents against sexualising their children. "We have a growing problem with pedophilia and people viewing children as sex objects," spokeswoman Angela Conway said.

"Children do not need these products and I am appalled. It is more than bad taste. The sexual portrayal of children in this country is illegal and these products are pandering to just that."

Australian Childhood Foundation CEO Dr Joe Tucci said padded bras were "the most ridiculous piece of clothing a parent could buy".

Bratz distributor Funtastic defended the range.

"The idea of the padding is for girls to be discreet as they develop," a spokeswoman said.

"It is more about hiding what you have got than showing it off. It is certainly not there to make children look like they have breasts."

Target also stood by the underwear range. It provided "fashionable items that give girls modesty and style as they go through development changes", a spokeswoman said.

"By yesterday we had counted more than 5,000 people in health centres" for problems linked to the toxic poisoning, the ministry's spokesman Simeon N'Da told AFP.

"The number of deaths remains unchanged at three," he added.

Ivory Coast's entire cabinet resigned on Wednesday over the poisoning scandal -- which triggered angry protests -- and an inter-ministerial committee was set up to handle the crisis.

Six French waste disposal experts arrived in Ivory Coast on Friday to help the skeleton administration, which has announced an emergency plan to neutralize toxic fumes emanating from the waste.

The toxic material was dumped in August by a Panamanian-registered ship onto about 10 open-air sites in the commercial capital Abidjan, a city of four million people.

Environmental pressure group Greenpeace said it comprised 400 tonnes of oil refining waste, rich in organic matter and poisonous elements. The latter include hydrogen sulphide and organochloride, which can cause nausea, rashes, fainting, diarrhoea and headaches.

The Greek company that owns the vessel, Prime Marine Management, confirmed the waste had been discharged but said the action was lawful.

The "Probo Koala" was chartered by a Netherlands-based company, which says an Ivorian firm had been entrusted with handling the unloaded waste.

Ivory Coast Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny, who has been asked to form a new government, has accused his disgraced administration of "negligence" and promised to punish those responsible.

The scandal has added to the woes of this west African state, where a UN-brokered peace process has tried to end four years of political crisis touched off by a failed coup against President Laurent Ggabgo in 2002 that effectively split the country in two.

Banny toured one of the waste dumps with French Junior Aid Minister Brigitte Girardin on Friday. Both wore gas masks to protect themselves from the noxious fumes emanating from the black, oily sludge, which has now been closed off by a security fence.

Girardin denounced the dumping as "criminal and unacceptable", in comments Saturday after arriving in Brazzaville for separate talks with officials there.

The sludge had contaminated nearby streams and pools and burnt the grass. But locals continued to grow tomatoes nearby, telling reporters they were now used to a smell described by one resident as "like gas mixed with garlic."