Washington  - US lawmakers were close to a compromise deal Wednesday on a record economic recovery package, which could allow the plan to pass both houses of Congress before the end of the week.

The Senate and House of Representatives have approved competing versions of the stimulus bill - both totalling more than 800 billion dollars - that include a mixture of tax cuts and government spending projects to pull the US out of its worst recession in decades.

Washington  - An earthquake with a ma

The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has approved the marketing of Ranbaxy Laboratories' migraine drug, Imitrex (Sumatriptan), a low cost version of migraine drug GlaxoSmithKine, in the US market.

A spokesman of Rabnbaxy said, "We have received the US Food and Drug Administration's (USFDA) approval for 100 mg Sumatriptan."

The regulator provides 180-day marketing exclusivity for its marketing in 100 mg dosage which was earlier rejected by it on December 2008.

London  - British officials have been given the green light by US authorities to visit a detainee at Guantanamo Bay in order to prepare his return to Britain, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Wednesday.

Britain has previously said that it would accept Binyam Mohamed, a 30-year-old Ethiopian, who was resident in Britain before his arrest in 2002 and transfer to Guantanamo two years later.

Miliband made his announcement after a meeting in London Wednesday with Lieutenant Colonel Yvonne Bradley, the detainee's US military lawyer.

Washington - Wall Street's top executives on Wednesday defended the hundreds of billions of dollars their struggling firms have received in government bail-out funds, insisting the money has helped improve lending to consumers.

Many also recognized the sharp degree of public outrage at the slow recovery process and accepted some responsibility for the near- collapse of the US and global financial system.

Brussels  - NATO strongly condemned Wednesday's terrorist attacks in Kabul, saying they provide further evidence that the Taliban insurgency does not seek the betterment of the Afghan people.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai said the attacks were "a very clear indication of what the Taliban intends for Afghanistan."

"They have slaughtered a number of civilians, they have attacked government institutions, they have made it very clear that their goal is not the betterment of the Afghan people," Appathurai said.