"The neural tube is the beginning of the brain and spinal cord, " said the study's lead investigator Lee Niswander, professor of pediatrics at the CU School of Medicine. "A defect in the mLin41 gene doesn't allow the tube to close because not enough neural progenitor cells are being made."

Sudan on April 11 suspended all negotiations with South Sudan over the disputes on oil payments following clashes along the oil rich border area. Khartoum said in a statement that it would withdraw its negotiation delegation from the African Union sponsored talks in Addis Ababas, Ethiopia, and that it had ordered military mobilization.

The Nigerian government on Thursday said about 70,000 newly born babies in the West African country are HIV positive.

Russia will give priority to modernizing its space industry to protect its independence in space exploration, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

The world's largest solar power plant, designed and manufactured by Austrian companies, began operation in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh recently after six months of trial operation, Austrian Press Agency (APA) reported on Tuesday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Smoking Cessation and Treatment of Tobacco Dependence was launched in Hong Kong on Monday.

The Spanish government on Monday announced that it is planning a 10-billion-euro (13 billion U.S. dollars) spending cuts in the country's health and education services.

 The U.S. unemployment rate edged down 0.1 percentage point to 8.2 percent in March, with job growth stalled, refreshing worries that the current economic growth may not be strong enough to bring sustained labor market improvement.

U.S. police on Sunday arrested two suspects for Friday's shootings that left three people dead and two seriously wounded, all black, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act into law, which would encourage startups and support the nation's small companies by loosening financial regulation against them.