The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a rise in food allergies in American children with four out of every 100 kids affected. The allergies which affect about 3 million children, doubles their risk of asthma and triples their risk of skin or respiratory allergies.

Amy Barnum, MSPH, CDC health statistician said, "It is a significant trend -- food allergies do appear to be continuously increasing over the decade. And if you look at hospital discharges with any diagnosis related to food allergy, there has been a significant increase."

Washington, Oct 23: Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has gained a nine-point lead over his opponent John McCain.

Less than two weeks before Election Day, Obama leads John McCain 49 percent to 40 percent among likely voters, according to a FOX News poll.

Obama’s advantage comes mainly from independents, and from the fact that more voters identify themselves as Democrats these days and almost all of them back their party’s nominee.

Islamabad  - A suspected US missile strike Thursday killed at least eight people and wounded six others in Pakistan's restive tribal region along the Afghan border, as the country's leaders reiterated that the frontiers would be defended "at all costs."

Two missiles targeted an Islamic seminary, Sirajul Uloom, in Dandai Darpakhel village, located some 3 kilometres from Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal district, at around 
2:30 am (2030 GMT), security officials and residents said.

Washington, Oct 23: Boxers will now be able to assess the fighting ability of their opponents - by just looking at their faces, at least that''s what scientists at University of California suggest.

Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara has found that people can determine with uncanny accuracy the fighting ability of men around them by honing in on their upper body strength, by just looking at their faces.

"Assessing fighting ability was important for our ancestors, and the characteristic that the mind implicitly equates with fighting ability is upper body strength," said Aaron Sell, a postdoctoral fellow at UCSB''s Center for Evolutionary Psychology and the paper''s lead author.

Kabul - Three soldiers of the US-led coalition were killed in a roadside bomb attack in western Afghanistan, while dozens of militants were killed in clashes between Afghan and international forces elsewhere in the country, officials said Thursday.

The three soldiers were killed and one other was wounded when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb blast in the western region on Wednesday night, the US military said in a statement.

The statement did not disclose the nationalities of the victims. Most of the soldiers serving under coalition command are from the US.

In another incident in the southern province of Uruzgan, Afghan and coalition forces battled with a group of Taliban militants in Deh Rawood district on Tuesday.

Finnish giant Nokia has made announcement about the launching of its latest sleek looking, compact dual slider N series phone, named ‘N85’ in the Indian market.

With an aim to provide ultimate gaming experience together with feature-rich experience, the newly launched handset comes with 15try-and-buy mobile N-Gage games plus a voucher for one full game license.