Washington, Feb 27: President Barck Obama is all set to end combat operations in Iraq by August 31, 2010, when the US military presence in Iraq would be not less than 35,000 and not more than 50,000.

Obama told top leaders in Congress on Thursday that he will end combat operations in Iraq on August 31, 2010, putting a halt to all US-led counterinsurgency efforts and transitioning the mission in Iraq to training, advising and engaging in limited counter-terrorist operations, FOX News quoted congressional sources, as saying.

Washington, Feb 27 : US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said that the Obama Administration is reversing an 18-year ban on news coverage of the return of war dead, allowing photographs of flag-covered caskets when families of the fallen troops agree.

"My conclusion was we should not presume to make the decision for the families," CBS News quoted Gates, as saying.

Hanoi  - Vietnam's government denounced an annual US State Department report that criticized the state of human rights in the South-East Asian country, local media reported Friday.

"We reject the biased remarks based on erroneous information about Vietnam that is contained in the US Department of State's 2008 report," Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Le Dung said.

Washington, Feb 27 : People who covered their notepads with scribbles may not have had entirely wasted the goal behind attending a dull meeting, suggests a new study, which found that doodling while listening can help with remembering details.

As per the study, which has been published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, subjects given a doodling task while listening to a dull phone message had a 29 percent improved recall compared to their non-doodling counterparts.

Washington  - Malia and Sasha Obama can celebrate: their highly publicized longing for a dog, is set to be satisfied soon.

After a months-long search, First Lady Michelle Obama has chosen a Portuguese water dog to join the family in April, the US magazine people said Thursday.

President Barack Obama had first promised his daughters a pet during his election campaign, regardless of the outcome. The breed had been considered a possible pick because it is "hypoallergenic" and Malia suffers from allergies.

Washington  - US mortgage giant Fannie Mae reported a 25.2- billion-dollar quarterly loss on Thursday and asked the government for cash to keep it afloat.

Fannie Mae asked for a 15.2-billion-dollar capital infusion from the US Treasury and said it could need more if the housing and credit markets continue to worsen.

It was the sixth-straight quarterly loss for the lender that was taken over by the government last year. Losses for the year came to 58.7 billion dollars.