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.

Chicago, Apr 22: An American man, who wrote a letter to US President Barack Obama about the dangers of smoking, was surprised to receive a reply from him.

Michael Powers, 54, whose dad had passed away 30 years back, wrote to Obama urging him to give up smoking, so that he could be there for his daughters.

When Powers, whose family has Waukegan roots, received the reply he could not believe it.

“When I first got it, I thought, ‘Hey, he wrote this’,” the Chicago Sun Times quoted him as saying.

Washington, Apr. 22: The Obama administration plans to create a new military command to coordinate the defense of Pentagon computer networks and improve U. S. offensive capabilities in cyber warfare, according to current and former officials familiar with the plans.