Dhaka, Sept 16: A senior official from the United States will visit Bangladesh, now under a state of emergency, on Tuesday to take stock of the country's progress on roadmap towards “democratic elections” which is likely to take place by the end of next year.

The US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian affairs, John A Gastright Jr., is expected to stay here for two days to discuss matters of bilateral interest, according to a press statement issued by the US embassy here today.

London, Sept 16: It seems that Britney Spears has decided to offer her ex-hubby Kevin Federline a hefty amount to gain joint custody of her two sons.

The pop star planned to make the move after K-Fed banned her from attending her youngest son Jayden James’ birthday party.

The singer’s pals say that Spears wants to solve the tussle before the rapper digs up dirt on her to ensure that she loses the custody of their kids.

A new study conducted at the University of Florida has revealed that teen girls who are on dieting are twice as likely to start smoking on a regular basis, as compared to girls who may not be on diet.

Researchers analyzed about 8,000 teenage girls to watch their dieting and smoking routines.

They discovered that dieting did not have the equal effect on boys as it performed on girls.

Mildred Maldonado-Molina who led the study stated, “Dieting was a significant predictor of initiation of regular smoking among females.”

According to a recent report, Liberal MP Belinda Stronach, who is combating breast cancer, went to California last June for some of her breast cancer treatment.

Greg MacEachern, Stronach’s representative, told that the former cabinet minister had a later-stage surgical operation in the US after her Toronto physicians referred her.

Baltimore: Dr. Martin D. Abeloff, an authority on the breast cancer treatment and chief oncologist at Johns Hopkins, died on Friday in Baltimore. He was 65 years old.

Mr. Abeloff guided the Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University for the last 15 years.

Vanessa Wasta, a representative for the cancer center said that Abeloff’s death followed a fight with leukemia, a type of cancer.

Wasta added that his leukemia was growing slowly, but his condition got worsened this past spring.

Alan O. Trounson, embryonic stem cell research and invitro fertilization specialist, from Australia, has been nominated as president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), that is at the top of California’s stem cell program worth $3 billion.

Mr. Trounson has a glorious record in research & investigation, management skills and confronting Australia's controversial politics circling embryonic stem cell research.

Trounson is well-known through-out the world for his work in stem cell investigation and human fertilization.