Washington, Mar. 19 : British Defense Minister John Hutton has said that the key to success in the `War on terror' in Afghanistan lies in rooting out the command and control centers of Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups operating from Pakistan.

Talking to media persons before meeting with US Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Hutton said: "The Taliban and al-Qaeda have got to know there is no safe haven."

Washington, Mar 19 : Kids' heightened liking for sweet-tasting foods is linked to their physical growth, according to a new study.

The study has been conducted by researchers at the University of Washington and the Monell Center.

"The relationship between sweet preference and growth makes intuitive sense because when growth is rapid, caloric demands increase. Children are programmed to like sweet taste because it fills a biological need by pushing them towards energy sources," said Monell geneticist Danielle Reed, PhD, one of the study authors.

Kids prefer higher levels of sweetness in their foods as compared to adults, a pattern that declines during adolescence.

Washington, March 19 : An Indian-origin researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has shed some light on why autistic people fail to recognise faces as effectively as their normal counterparts, by studying why they often fail to recognise faces in photographic negatives.

Pawan Sinha, an associate professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, says that a person''s eyes appear darker than the forehead and cheeks in nearly every normal lighting condition.

Washington  - Six years into the war in Iraq a weary American public finally has an end to the US role in sight, but that end will take a couple more years and require more sacrifices by US soldiers.

Beginning with pre-dawn bombing on March 20, 2003, over Baghdad, the war was launched with the stated goal of ousting Saddam Hussein's regime and wiping out his weapons of mass destruction, which proved nonexistent. The mission evolved into stabilizing Iraq under a democratic government.

New York  - Actress Natasha Richardson died Wednesday in a New York hospital, her family announced, broadcaster CNN reported.

The family had gathered at her bedside Wednesday for a final, tragic vigil after the British born actress, 45, was critically injured Monday in a skiing accident in Canada's Quebec province.

Washington - American International Group, under fire for paying 165 million dollars in retention bonuses using government bail-out money, is not the only government beneficiary to have spent its money that way.

As AIG head Edward Liddy faced criticism on Capitol Hill Wednesday, a federal regulator defended a payment by Fannie Mae, the mortgage finance firm seized by the government last year, of 4.4 million dollars to four top executives.