At A Glance

US gun manufacturer Colt will stop taking orders for almost all consumer handguns following the wave of lawsuits flied against the gun industry by cities around the country, the magazine reported.

The Hartford, Connecticut-based company will continue to make military and collectible handguns, and is working on a quot;smart gunquot; which can only be fired by the owner. It hopes to have the new weapon on the market sometime next year, the magazine said.

quot;We have to focus on what we know we can make money on,quot; without taking the risk of a possible jury verdict against them, an unnamed Colt executive told Newsweek.

The move will result in the gun manufacturer, famous for having invented the revolver, laying off as many as 300 of its 700 union workers in its Connecticutplant, Newsweek said.

Anti-nuclear sentiment high in Japan after mishap: Poll

TOKYO: Forty-two percent of Japanese opposed pushing forward a nuclear power programme, outstripping a pro-nuclear group following the nation8217;s worst nuclear accident, a poll showed on Monday.

The Asahi Shimbun conducted the telephone survey on Friday and Saturday across the nation, covering 1,507 people of whom 68 percent responded.

The poll showed one third of the 42 percent said they started feeling opposition to promoting a nuclear power programme after the September 30 disaster.

The survey showed 35 percent were still pro-nuclear even after the accident, with 23 percent making no response.

A total of 49 people were exposed to potentially deadly nuclear radiation at a troubled uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, in the world8217;s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

The daily said the survey results reflected a growing sense of opposition toward nuclear power,adding the accident led to a wavering of faith in the safety of nuclear facilities.

The poll also showed 49 percent of respondents said that before the disaster, they had believed serious nuclear accidents would never occur in Japan. Forty-three percent said they had thought a major accident would occur at Japanese nuclear facilities even before the case. Eight percent made no reply.

Eminent indologist Hajime Nakamura dies

TOKYO: Renowned indologist Dr Hajime Nakamura, an outstanding international authority on Indian philosophy, Sanskrit literature and Buddhism, has died, his family said.

Prof Nakamura, 86, died on Sunday because of kidney failure, the Daily Shimbun said on Monday. A memorial service will be held in his honour by Tokyo8217;s Honganji Buddhist temple on November 6.

Prof Nakamura8217;s vast field of study includes various schools of Indian philosophy, logic, as well as thoughts on Hinduism and Buddhism besides the relationship of religion with society andpolitics.

High-tech ride to slaughterhouse saves cattle stress

GIESSEN: Electrocardiograms will soon be taken of cows on their way to slaughter, and cattle trucks will use satellite navigation to avoid bumpy or winding routes, if Swedish engineer Girma Gebresenbet has his way.

European meat experts are interested because preventing stress in cattle ensures better-quality meat. Steaks from a distressed beast have less acid in them, taste dry and lack substances that transport taste, explained Ernst Luecker, a German veterinarian.

Gebresenbet told an international workshop on agricultural transport last week in the German city of Giessen that tests in Sweden have already proved that putting high-tech into cattle trucks cuts out most of the stress created on the road.

His team at Uppsala University has found that it used to take just an hour to transport most cattle to the nearest abbatoir. 8220;These days it often takes up to six hours,8221; said the agricultural engineer. The reason is the trend tobigger, more efficient slaughterhouses, often further away from the farms. The result is more meat with signs of stress.