Washington, Jan. 15 : Unlike recent White House occupants -- George W. Bush and Bill Clinton - Barack Obama has yet to provide The Times with the sort of free-wheeling, pre-Inauguration interview the paper has come to expect. And, there''s little expectation it will happen before Tuesday.

"We would certainly like it to happen," said Times political editor Dick Stevenson, "but the days are running short at this point."

Washington, January 15 : A Wellcome Trust-funded study has shown that a competition between the two sides of the brain causes it to become asymmetrical, which is thought to be important to enable the two hemispheres to specialise and operate more efficiently.

The study on brain development in zebrafish is the first to cast light on the mechanisms that brings about the left-right asymmetry in the brains of most animals.

Washington, Jan. 15 : Soon-to-be Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton bid an emotional farewell to her Senate colleagues Wednesday night, saying that serving in the Senate "has been the greatest experience of my life" and that leaving them was "like leaving family."

Clinton, whose eyes welled up as she worked the elegant LBJ room in the Capitol, hugged and kissed colleagues, posed for pictures and thanked them one by one as she reminded them she would be "just around the corner," reports Politico.

Washington, Jan. 15 : For the second time in three days, a judge has refused to jail swindler Bernie Madoff, who is so despised he had to wear a bulletproof vest to court.

Over the government's objections, a magistrate judge ruled Monday that Madoff could remain free on 10 million dollar bail, confined to his East Side penthouse.

Prosecutors appealed, arguing Madoff should be tossed in jail for mailing one million dollars worth of jewelry to family members, allegedly in an effort to hide his assets.

Washington, January 15 : A new study suggests that scientists trying to increase the speed of supercomputers merely by increasing the number of processor cores on individual chips may unexpectedly be slowing the computing performance for many complex applications.

The suggestion is based on the observations made by researchers associated with a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company, for the U. S. Department of Energy''s National Nuclear Security Administration.

A Sandia team simulated key algorithms for deriving knowledge from large data sets.

Washington, Jan. 15: Outgoing US President George W. Bush''s approval rating now stands at 34 percent, but according to the latest Gallup poll, his overall rating is the third worst in US history.

Going back to the 1950s, only Richard Nixon and Harry Truman have had lower ratings when they left office, CBS reports.

Jimmy Carter''s approval rating was also 34 percent. Every other president''s approval stood at 49 percent or better. Bill Clinton had a 66 percent approval rating.