Washington, February 11 : Mickey Rourke has confessed that he wanted to ape veteran Al Pacino's fame and success, but landed elsewhere.

`The Wrestler' star revealed that his non-conforming attitude towards showbiz rules and politics prevented him from reaching the top most glory he had always dreamt of.

"I wanted to be as big as Al Pacino. I thought my acting ability was enough so I didn''t play by the rules, I ignored all the politics, I upset people and in the end I lost everything," Contactmusic quoted him as saying.

Washington, February 11 : Michelle Obama has said that Washington had come to mean a new home for her family and they were looking forward to getting involved with the city.

The First Lady of the United States had paid a visit to a teen group at a health care centre in Adams Morgan and told the kids she has been "somewhat where you are."

"We''ve been visitors but now we live here. This is our community now," the Washington Times quoted her as saying.

Washington, Feb 11 : Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke wants his good friend Sean

Washington, Feb. 11 : A leading US military expert has warned that the war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan will be lost by the end of the summer, if dramatic changes in counter-insurgency strategy fail to take place.

Colonel John Nagl, an Iraq veteran who helped devise the successful strategy there under the guidance of General David Petraeus, who is now the CENTCOM commander, told The Telegraph that the gains made by the Taliban over the past two years need to be reversed by the end of the traditional fighting season in Afghanistan, around late September or early October, or else the Taliban will establish a durable base that would make a sustained Western military presence futile.

Washington, Feb 11 : Astronomers are using NASA''s Swift satellite and Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to probe frequent blasts from a flaring gamma-ray star
30,000 light-years away.

The high-energy fireworks arise from a rare type of neutron star known as a soft-gamma-ray repeater. Such objects unpredictably send out a series of X-ray and gamma-ray flares.

Washington, Feb 11 : Mexican/American actress Salma Hayek has revealed that she uses her on/off beau Francois-Henri Pinault as an inspiration while doing kissing scenes.

The 42-year-old star, who appeared in a cameo role as Alec Baldwin''s girlfriend in 30 Rock said that she thought about her billionaire beau while locking lips with Baldwin in the hit NBC series

"I keep telling Francois, ''I Imagine I was kissing you,'' " People quoted Hayek as saying.

The `Desperado' star said that she really enjoyed working with Baldwin.