Warsaw - Poland as well as the rest of Europe and the United States have to deal with an increasingly aggressive Russia, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in statements published Thursday in the country's biggest daily.

Poland was a US key ally in the region, Rice said in a statement in the Wyborcza newspaper, and said Russian leaders were currently making bad choices.

Referring to Russia's recent conflict with Georgia, Rice said the Kremlin should respect the sovereignty of its smaller neighbors. Russia's actions, she said, are pushing it toward the path of isolation.

New York, Sept 25 : In the wake of the fresh spate of suicide attacks in Pakistan, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan needed a ‘negotiated settlement’ and not a “military action”.

He said that as the British and Soviet forces failed to resolve the Afghan crisis, the US-led NATO troops could also not do any better in Pakistan.

Washington, Sept 25 : Scientists from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have revealed that calorie restriction, a diet that is low in calories and high in nutrition, may not be as effective at extending life in people as it is in rodents.

Previous studies have shown that laboratory animals given 30 percent to 50 percent less food can live up to 50 percent longer, however, a new study suggests the diet may not have the desired effect in people unless they focus on their protein intake.

The team led by John O. Holloszy have found discrepancy between humans and animals on calorie restriction.

Washington, Sept 25 : Low-cost biological sand (biosand) filters can help provide safe drinking water to people in rural and peri-urban areas in developing countries, who are being forced to drink contaminated water due to lack of safer access, suggest experts.

Nearly 1.1 billion people have been drinking contaminated water, with approximately 2.2 million people without safe access dying each year, and most of them are children under 5 years of age.

The biosand filters are capable of dramatically improving the quality of drinking water and has also gained acceptance by the World Health Organization as a viable household water treatment technology,

London, Sept. 25 : The international Quartet – consisting of the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia – is being accused of creating a "vacuum of leadership" as the aid agencies complain that "visible progress" in the Middle East has "failed to materialise".

The report referred to by The Independent, says that despite the Quartet saying in June that such progress was vital to building confidence in the negotiating process, it has failed to press home its own calls on Israel for a freeze on settlement building, an improvement in the movement of Palestinian people and goods, and a revival of the collapsed economy in Gaza.

New York, Sept. 25 : A new CBS News/New York Times Poll shows that US President George W Bush’s rating on handling the economy has fallen to its lowest level ever.

Now only 16 percent of Americans approve of the job he is doing on this issue, while 76 percent disapprove of his performance. That’s down from a 32 percent approval rating the president registered on the economy in September of 2007, reports CBS.

President Bush’s previous low on this question came in July when just 20 percent approved of his handling of the economy. Bush received his highest marks on the economy shortly after the attacks of September 11th, 2001.