Islamabad, Nov 6: US Central Command chief General David Petraeus, whose Pakistan visit ended yesterday, said that Pakistan was fighting its own war on terror because it faced an “existential threat from the situation in the Tribal Areas.”

Giving an account of his talks with Pakistani leadership, Petraeus said: “In general there is mutual agreement on the nature of the threat in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, a threat that they increasingly see as a threat to Pakistan’s existence.”

Washington, Nov 6 : Pregnant women who have a smoking habit are more than twice as likely to have children with a cleft palate or lip birth defect, a new study has found.

The findings were based on the measurement of cotinine level, a metabolite of nicotine, in the blood from about 500 pregnant women.

Washington, Nov 6 : Researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery have identified a new therapeutic target that can be used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

The research team found that manipulating a protein involved in two molecular pathways linked to inflammation could offer new therapies for rheumatoid arthritis.

They said that manipulating a protein called RBP-J involved in two molecular pathways the Notch and Toll-like receptor can lead to new therapies.

Manila - Philippine share p

Recent research contradicts the established notion that folic acid, vitamins B6, B12 can prevent cancer in women.

Researchers found no significant role of folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12 play in preventing cancer in women at high risk for cardiovascular disease.

Sydney - Australia's cash-strapped ABC Learning Centres Ltd called in the receivers Thursday after banks it owed 1.3 billion Australian dollars (910 million US dollars) called in their loans.

ABC, founded by South African-born Eddy Groves, was the world's biggest provider of child care before incurring so much debt in a global expansion programme that it was marked out long ago as a likely casualty of the current credit crisis.

Groves, who last month severed his links with ABC, was forced by margin calls to sell all his holdings. Some of the shares he unloaded were picked up by Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings, now the biggest investor in the crippled company.