Washington, Sept 12: As the US death toll in Afghanistan has reportedly reached an all-time high, around 113 this year alone, the American intelligence agency CIA has reportedly launched a major blitz into Pakistan against top Al Qaeda and Taliban targets, apparently with due authority from US President George Bush.

Besides the 113 American soldiers, 101 other foreign troops have died during this year.

According to the Daily News, the CIA had rarely hit targets in Pakistan because they sparked anti-American outrage that threatened former Pakistan president and US ally Pervez Musharraf’s fragile hold on power.

London, Sept 12 : Cocaine use is being glamorized by models and actors, according to George W Bush''s drugs tsar, who warns that the effect is encouraging young middle class professionals to start using the addictive drug.

While on a visit to London, Walters said that impressionable young professionals in their 20s were being sucked into drug addiction because celebrities were using them and not coming to any harm.

New York, Sept. 12: Former U. S. President Bill Clinton has predicted that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama will win this November’s presidential election and win handily.

Speaking to reporters before the two sat down for a working lunch at the Clinton Foundation headquarters in Harlem, Clinton said: “I've agreed to do a substantial number of things. Whatever I’m asked to do”.

"Senator Obama will win and win handily,” said Clinton, and Obama chimed in: There you go. You can take it from the President of the United States. He knows a little something about politics.”

Fort Wainwright (Alaska), Sept. 12: Republican vice-presidential nominee and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has told an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that the war in that country is similar to horror associated with the 9/11 terror strikes in the United States, and urged them to "defend the innocent from enemies who rejoice in the death of thousands of Americans.

The same train of thought was once promoted by the Bush administration, but now the president himself has rejected it.

Washington, September 12: Scientists in the US has found compelling evidence that ocean floor sediments may be the cause of megaquakes, including the earthquake and tsunami that struck the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004.

According to a report in Discovery News, the scientists include David Scholl, an emeritus scientist at the United States Geological Survey, and his team, who have been looking closely at subduction zones.

These areas are where the ocean crust grinds beneath an adjacent tectonic plate, plunging in fits and starts into the mantle.

The zones are infamous for their catastrophic temblors, called ''megathrusts,'' which often generate powerful earthquakes and devastating tsunamis.