Washington, Mar. 30 : The United States has no plans to militarily pre-empt the launching of a long-range missile by North Korea, but has added that it would act only if the missile or its parts appeared to be headed toward American territory.

US Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Sunday said that Washington could give a calibrated military response with cooperation from Japan and South Korea, but reminded one and all that diplomatic action would be pursued first.

Recent study revealed that children exposed to anesthesia during first three years of their life are at higher risk of developing learning disabilities when they grow up. Previous studies have shown that anesthetic drugs can lead to abnormalities in the brains of young animals.

Research team led by Randall Flick, a paediatrician at Rochester's Mayo Clinic analyzed data collected from studied the medical records of 5,357 children from Olmsted County who were born between 1976 and 1982.

Miami  - Roger Federer polished his mighty game at the continued expense of Nicolas Kiefer as he hammered the German 6-4, 6-1 to rip into a third-round place on a cloudy, muggy Sunday afternoon at the Miami Masters.

The Swiss second seed and two-time winner at Crandon Park spent little more than an hour in the rout and never faced a break point as he beat the veteran for the 11th consecutive time.

US health regulator Food and Drug Ad

London, Mar. 29 : Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari may have welcomed US President Barack Obama''s new strategy on Afghanistan and Pakistan (now called AfPak in Washington), but experts have warned that both the South Asian countries will have to pay a fair price in exchange of the US aid.

According to Afghan President Karzai, the proposal for increased civil and military aid was "better than they were expecting."

New Delhi, Mar 29 : United States Special Envoy to Afghanistan