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BEIJING – Eleven rare Siberian tigers kept in small cages and fed only chicken bones have died of malnutrition at a cash-strapped zoo in China’s frigid northeast, state media said Friday.

A manager at the Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo in Liaoning province, however, said the animals had died of disease.

Siberian tigers are one of the world’s rarest species, with just 300 believed remaining in the wild.

Given a choice Rajeev Khandelwal was happy being attached to his girlfriend Manjiri Kamtikar because he knew, marriage or not, he was in love with her for keeps and he didn’t need any formal announcement to prove it.

But the engagement to be held in May is being done to comply with the lady’s parent’s wishes..

Says Rajeev, “Manjari and her parents come from a world far removed from cinema and the entertainment industry. They don’t understand the workings of Bollywood and their knowledge of what goes on here is based on what they read and see on television. You can’t blame them for thinking actors are not to be trusted.”

Manjari’s parents were anxious that he make the association formal.Gallantly Rajeev volunteered an engagement ceremony.

Says Rajeev, “But I don’t know how it got out. I haven’t discussed it with anyone. Manjari’s parents or my parents in all their innocence must have shared the information with some people.”

Rajeev enjoys the distance that his girlfriend provides from the goings-on in the industry. “She works in an ad agency and is far removed from show world. She keeps me grounded. I’m looking forward to spending my life with her.”

Christy Walton & family

Bill Gates ain’t the richest man of the world anymore.

Carlos Slim Helu takes No. 1 spot on Forbes World’s Billionaires List.

1) Carlos Slim Helu

Net Worth: $53.5 billion

Source: Telecom

Residence: Mexico

• Telecom tycoon who pounced on privatization of Mexico’s national telephone company in the 1990s becomes world’s richest person for first time after coming in third place last year. Net worth up $18.5 billion in a year.

2) Bill Gates

Net Worth: $53 billion

Source: Microsoft

Residence: U.S.

• Software visionary is now the world’s second-richest man. Net worth still up $13 billion in a year as Microsoft shares rose 50% in 12 months, value of investment vehicle Cascade swelled.

Photo via Andrew Evans of the National Geographic

King Penguins are notorious for their prim, tuxedoed appearance — but a recently discovered all-black penguin seems unafraid to defy convention. In what has been described as a “one in a zillion kind of mutation,” biologists say that the animal has lost control of its pigmentation, an occurrence that is extremely rare. Other than the penguin’s monochromatic outfit, the animal appears to be perfectly healthy – and then some. “Look at the size of those legs,” said one scientist, “It’s an absolute monster.”

TOKYO – Sony Corp. said Tuesday it will start selling 3-D televisions in June, joining a competitive industrywide push to convince consumers to embrace the technology for their living rooms.

The Japanese electronics giant, known for its PlayStation 3 game consoles and Bravia flat-screen TVs, will offer its fully capable 3-D TV model in four sizes this summer.

The 40-inch and 46-inch versions will go on sale on June 10 in Japan, while the 52- and 60-inch TVs will be available starting July 16.

Although the company did not release a global launch date, Sony Senior Vice President Yoshihisa Ishida said the new TVs will hit stores in the U.S. and other countries around the same time.

The 40-inch 3-D will cost about 290,000 yen ($3,200), and the biggest 60-inch will retail at 580,000 yen ($6,400).

Included are two pairs of Sony’s 3-D glasses, as well as a camera sensor on each unit that will adjust sound and picture quality based on viewers’ positions. A remote control button enables the switch from a regular 2-D image to 3-D.

Sony hopes that 10 percent of the 25 million TVs it aims to sell next fiscal year will be 3-D units.

WASHINGTON – The virus that causes AIDS can hide in the bone marrow, avoiding drugs and later awakening to cause illness, according to new research that could point the way toward better treatments for the disease.

Finding that hide-out is a first step, but years of research lie ahead.

Dr. Kathleen Collins of the University of Michigan and her colleagues report in this week’s edition of the journal Nature Medicine that the HIV virus can infect long-lived bone marrow cells that eventually convert into blood cells.

The virus is dormant in the bone marrow cells, she said, but when those progenitor cells develop into blood cells, it can be reactivated and cause renewed infection. The virus kills the new blood cells and then moves on to infect other cells, she said.

“If we’re ever going to be able to find a way to get rid of the cells, the first step is to understand” where a latent infection can continue, Collins said.

In recent years, drugs have reduced AIDS deaths sharply, but patients need to keep taking the medicines for life or the infection comes back, she said. That’s an indication that while the drugs battle the active virus, some of the disease remains hidden away to flare up once the therapy is stopped.

One hide-out was found earlier in blood cells called macrophages. Another pool was discovered in memory T-cells, and research began on attacking those.

But those couldn’t account for all the HIV virus still circulating, Collins said, showing there were more locations to check out and leading her to study the blood cell progenitors.

“I don’t know how many people realize that although the drugs have reduced mortality we still have a long way to go,” Collins said in a telephone interview. “That is mainly because we can’t stop the drugs, people have to take it for a lifetime.”

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, Burroughs Wellcome Foundation, University of Michigan, Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, National Science Foundation and a Bernard Maas Fellowship.