Beijing - Chinese President Hu Jintao spoke to his US counterpart George W Bush, expressing hope that US efforts would help curb the global financial crisis, state media reported Wednesday.

The Chinese leader and Bush also discussed planned international financial summits and ways to strengthen international cooperation to stabilise financial markets in their Tuesday phone call.

Hu hoped that US measures to rein in the crisis "would take effect as soon as possible, restore investor confidence and prevent further expansion of the crisis," Xinhua news agency reported.

"The measures are conducive to the stability of the world economy and financial markets," Hu added, according to Xinhua.

Sydney - Investors deserted Australian stocks Wednesday in response to a fall on Wall Street.

The ASX 200 lost 146 points, or 3.3 per cent, to 4,146.

Bell Potter Securities analyst James Waggett said the most interesting moves were from the giant miners BHP Billiton Ltd and Rio Tinto Ltd, the latter a takeover target for the former.

While BHP lost almost 5 per cent, Rio was up almost 7 per cent, indicating that traders were factoring in a greater likelihood that BHP would succeed with its hostile merger.

Washington, Oct 22: Using multiple tactics to boost both innate and adaptive immunity in mice, scientists at Scripps Research Department of Immunology have successfully enhanced their body''s ability to fight cancer.

The researchers hope that their work may pave the way for developing new human immunotherapy.

"The problem with cancer is that it becomes part of what the immune system identifies as ''self'' and there are ways the body learns to tolerate ''self'' to prevent immune attack. Hitting it with these new tools basically gets the immune system to pay attention to the cancer, and go after it," said the study''s senior investigator, Dr. Linda Sherman.

Washington, Oct 22 : Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has reportedly launched a fresh attack on Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, saying that his hot pursuit policy of sending troops into Pakistan in search of Al Qaeda and Taliban militants “could spark an international crisis”.

She also criticized Bush for showing his support for former Pakistani dictator-turned-President Pervez Musharraf.

New Delhi, Oct 22: President Pratibha Patil today congratulated G. Madhavan Nair and his team at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the successful launch of Chandrayaan-1.

In a message to Nair from Guwahati, the President said, "Congratulations to you and your team at the ISRO for the successful launch of Chandrayaan-1 which is now on its journey to the Moon. This day shall go down as a landmark in our space programme, a day which will inspire our space scientists to further work on our mission to put an Indian astronaut into space using an Indian space capsule."

New York, Oct. 22: The standing of the Democratic presidential ticket of Barack Obama and Joe Biden improved during the three presidential debates and the vice presidential debate, a new CBS News/New York Times poll shows.

In a poll taken just before the first presidential debate, the Obama-Biden ticket held a five point edge, with 48 percent of likely voters backing the Democratic ticket and 43 percent supporting the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin.