London - Shares in leading British banks rallied strongly on the London Stock Exchange Monday following news of the US government's bail-out of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

New York, Sept. 8 : Republican presidential nominee John McCain has taken a slight lead over his Democratic rival Barack Obama -- 48-45 percent, according to the latest Gallup Daily Tracking poll published on Sunday.

It is the largest advantage for McCain, though still within the 2-point margin of error, since May.

The 48 percent also registers the largest raw number McCain has received in the poll since Gallup started its daily tracking of the two presidential candidates in March. McCain matched that number in May.

Washington, Sept. 8 : Republican presidential nominee John McCain has said that if he is elected president, he will appoint Democrats to his Cabinet.

Fox News quoted McCain as saying that he wanted the best people to tackle the nation’s toughest problems regardless of partisanship.

Washington, September 8 : A new research has found out how plants fine-tune their natural chemical defenses.

Even closely related plants produce their own natural chemical cocktails, each set uniquely adapted to the individual plant''s specific habitat.

Comparing anti-fungals produced by tobacco and henbane, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, US, discovered that only a few mutations in a key enzyme are enough to shift the whole output to an entirely new product mixture.

Peshawar, Sep 8: Seven guided missiles have been fired from US spy planes in Miranshah and adjoining areas in North Waziristan, killing three persons and injuring 
15 others, including women and children.

According to sources, the guided missiles targeted the madarssah and house of Afghan commander Jalaluddin Haqqani in Miranshah.

Commander Haqqani was surfaced during war against Russia in Afghanistan and his guerrilla activities gave tough time to Russian forces during wartime, The News reported.

A drone operated by US-led forces in Afghanistan fired six to seven guided missiles at the seminary in Tanda Darpakhel, two kilometres from Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan.

Washington, Sept. 8 : Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has said that there was a time when he wanted to join the United States military, but decided not to because the Vietnam war was over and "we weren''t engaged in an active military conflict at that point".

This is the first time during the 19-month-long presidential campaign that Obama has revealed his desire to serve in uniform. The aspiration was not mentioned in either of his two volumes of memoirs, reports The Telegraph.