Washington  - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday that Pakistan's policy of ceding territory to Islamic extremists poses a serious threat that cannot be overlooked.

During testimony before the foreign policy committee in the House of Representatives, Clinton called on Pakistanis "to speak out forcefully against a policy that is ceding more and more territory to the insurgents, to the Taliban, to al-Qaeda, to the allies that are in this terrorist syndicate."

Amman - Jordanian politicians and pundits on Wednesday welcomed US President Barack Obama's strong support for the two-state solution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict - but queried the pressure he would put on the right-wing government in Israel.

"We are optimistic, but we should not go too far in this optimism," Mahmoud Mhaidat, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee at the Jordanian lower house of parliament, told German Press Agency dpa.

Moscow - Russia is disappointed over US President Barack Obama's lack of readiness to compromise in the dispute over the anti- ballistic missile system planned for Central Europe, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov was quoted by local media as saying Wednesday.

"The US has not revised its plans (after the change of president) but instead intensified them," Ryabkov said in an interview with the newspaper Vremya Novostey.

Washington - Asian economies were not exposed to toxic US mortgage-related assets at the heart of the ongoing recession, but they have been heavily impacted by the subsequent slump in global trade, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday.

Advanced Asian economies were the hardest hit and for the region as a whole, and gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to contract by about 6 per cent in 2009 after expanding by 3.5 per cent before the crisis started unravelling in 2007.

New York - McDonald's, the world's largest fast-food chain, on Wednesday reported net income of 979.5 million dollars for the first quarter, a 4 per cent rise in profits compared with same period in 2008.

The company, based in the town of Oak Brook, Illinois, reported that the profits was equivalent to 87 cents per share, 6 cents up from the first quarter 2008.

Washington, Apr 22: With President Barack Obama reopening the possibility of investigating and even prosecuting Bush Administration lawyers on the so-called “torture memos”, the legal analysts have questioned question the US Justice Department move.

These “torture memos” cleared the way for the CIA to use harsh interrogation methods when questioning suspected terrorists.

Obama’s move doesn’t mean those attorneys will end up facing prison sentences any time soon, FOX News reported.