Washington, Feb. 7: The acquittal of Pakistani scientist Dr. A. Q. Khan from charges of nuclear proliferation may force the United States to consider the assistance and aid being provided to Pakistan.

According to Democratic Representative Howard Berman, the decision to set Khan free, who had been under house arrest for five years, was `very alarming', and the US will certainly take into account the decision while deciding aid to Islamabad.

Los Angeles - Veteran US actor James Whitmore died of lung cancer at his Malibu, California home aged 87, news reports said Saturday.

Whitmore died on Friday, the Los Angeles Times quoted the actor's son Steve as saying.

The actor, who was born on October 1, 1921 in White Plains, New York picked up an Oscar nomination for a lead role for his portrayal of US president Harry Truman in Give 'em Hell Harry! in 1975.

During his long career, Whitmore, who made his debut on Broadway in 1947, earned a Tony Award and one Emmy Award.

Washington, Feb 7: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has voiced concern about a Pakistani court's decision to free disgraced nuclear scientist Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, who operated an alleged nuclear proliferation network.

"I am very much concerned and will have more to say about that," Clinton said during a brief appearance before the news media with visiting Philippine President Gloria Arroyo.

Washington - Windows 7 - with its commendable performance improvements - may be on the horizon. But for now, most of us have to live with Windows Vista, which can make even the fastest computer seem slow.

But you don't have to put up with Vista's sluggishness without a fight. In fact, most of what ails Vista when it comes to performance can be remedied by adjusting some settings and eliminating some features.

And the good news: The whole process need not take more than half an hour. Afterwards, you'll be rewarded a computer that feels a lot faster.

---Turn off window animation.

San Francisco  - More than 200,000 state workers were forced to take unpaid leave Friday, in a bid by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to preserve the state's rapidly dwindling cash reserves.

Schwarzenegger's order requires the state employees to take two Fridays off without pay every month, a move that is designed to save some 1.4 billion dollars through June 2010, the end of the next fiscal year.

Munich (dpa) - US President Barack Obama's desire to boost dialogue in the Middle East is "positive", but it must be followed with a complete change in US diplomacy, the speaker of Iran's parliament said Friday.

"In the last year, the US has burned many bridges. A new White House can rebuild them, but this requires new pragmatic strategies based on respect and fair play: the carrot and stick must be discarded," Ali Larijani told the Munich Security Conference in Germany.