Washington, Sept. 15 : Karl Rove, the man credited with getting President Bush elected twice, has warned both Democrats and Republicans that they are making a mistake by using advertising to attack their respective candidates.

Political strategist Karl Rove said Obama may not have consciously wanted to attribute Palin with porcine traits when he used the “lipstick on a pig” analogy to describe the McCain campaign’s policies, but it sure looked like “a deliberate slap” at the Alaska governor.

Washington, Sept. 15 : Astronomers have unveiled what is likely the first picture of a planet around a normal star similar to the Sun.

Three University of Toronto scientists used the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawai''i to take images of the young star 1RXS J160929.1-210524 (which lies about 500 light-years from Earth) and a candidate companion of that star. They also obtained spectra to confirm the nature of the companion, which has a mass about eight (8) times that of Jupiter, and lies roughly 330 times the Earth-Sun distance away from its star.

The parent star is similar in mass to the Sun, but is much younger.

Washington, Sep 15 : American public sentiment is moving in Republicans’ direction despite Democrats having the money and reach to add substantially to their House majority in November, according to a poll that suggests the GOP could limit those gains.

An Associated Press-GfK poll conducted between September 5-10 found Republicans trailing Democrats by just five percentage points when likely voters were asked which party they want to control Congress next year.

That is a substantial improvement from the double-digit disadvantage Republicans were suffering in most public polls so far this year, although the boost could prove fleeting, FOX News reported.

New York, Sept. 15 : Four Democratic women leaders say their criticism of Republican vice-presidential nominee and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has nothing to do with gender, but her inability to give focused responses to issues that matter to Americans in the run up to the November 4 presidential poll.

Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida stated flatly that Palin isn’t ready to be vice president.

"She doesn''t know anything," Wasserman Schultz told on CBS'' Face The Nation.

Vienna  - Shares traded on the Vienna stock exchange fell by 3.9 per cent in the first hour of trading Monday, following the news that the US investment bank Lehman Brothers was bankrupt.

Paris - Reacting to the collapse of US bank Lehmann Brothers, the Paris Bourse plunged by nearly 3.5 per cent shortly after opening, led downward by financial shares.