Two multinational companies are developing memory-enhancing pill. AstraZeneca in collaboration with Targacept, an American company, is trying to develop milder form of a medicine which is originally used to treat Alzheimer's disease. Epix Pharmaceuticals, also from the US is also working on a memory enhancing pill.

Washington  - Barack Obama expects to enlist the help of ordinary Americans after he takes office Tuesday as the country's first African-American president and inherits the country's worst economic crisis in decades.

That message was hammered home Monday as Obama rolled up his sleeves and joined other Americans in celebrating the birthday of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr with a nationwide call to community service.

Washington - More than three-quarters of US citizens consider Barack Obama's inauguration as US president Tuesday as one of the most historically significant in the history of the United States, according to a poll released Monday by the US Gallup institute.

Some 33 per cent of US citizens in fact gave the inauguration of the first black president the top ranking of "most important" inauguration in US history.

Washington - The military tribunal of the five alleged co- conspirators in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks was set to resume on Monday amid speculation President-elect Barack Obama will suspend the proceedings shortly after taking office.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the plot, and four co-defendants were due to appear before the military commission for pretrial hearings, including one on whether Ramzi bin-alShibh is mentally competent to handle his defence.

Mohammed along with the others in December declared before the commission that they wanted to confess to the plot, but those statements were later rescinded. All five men could face military executions if convicted for the plot.

Washington, Jan.