Washington

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday banned the import of two male sexual stimulant diet supplements sold on the internet, saying they contain an undeclared prescription drug ingredient. It said the products were found to contain prescription-strength quantities of sildenafil … the active drug ingredient in Viagra.”

George Bush scored a key victory in Tuesday’s extremely tight United States presidential vote, taking the crucial battleground state of Florida that proved decisive in the 2000 election, US television networks projected. Still, results in many of the hotly contested critical swing states were too close to call and hours after all polls had officially closed nationwide the networks were holding off on calling them for Bush or challenger John Kerry.

Americans started voting on Tuesday in one of the tightest presidential elections in decades after a long and often bitter campaign between Republican incumbent George Bush and his Democratic rival John Kerry. A huge turnout has been forecast, with Iraq and the war on terror dominating the campaign.

Four years on, the United States presidential election is again a dead heat between a radical conservative and a mainstream liberal. And once more, Ralph Nader’s oddball candidacy threatens to tip the delicate balance to the right. This time the consumer activist is a much-reduced force. The overwhelming majority of his closest aides and supporters have defected, including Michael Moore.

Male freshwater bass are producing eggs in the South Branch of the Potomac River in West Virginia, a possible sign of environmental pollution. Although the waters of the South Branch were described as ”clear as bottled water” by the Washington Post, the newspaper quoted scientists as saying the water could actually be highly polluted through poultry manure or other sources.

The United States on Monday called on the European Union and other democracies to consider imposing a full import ban on Myanmar to pressure the country’s military junta to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The call came as the political leadership in Myanmar was riven with tensions amid rumours Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt may have been removed or arrested.

Privatisation and trade liberalisation policies foisted on developing countries in return for financial help are often bad for the poor, according to a confidential United Kingdom government paper. The document says the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and individual governments should limit and streamline so-called ”conditionality” for aid money.

Democratic challenger John Kerry won the first televised presidential debate against Republican President George Bush late on Thursday, according to instant polls. A Gallup poll for CNN gave Kerry a 46% to 37% win over the president. It added that 46% of those asked now have a better opinion of Kerry against 21% for Bush.

An incident this week in which British former pop star Cat Stevens was deported from the United States to London as a ”no-fly” terrorist risk was caused by a spelling error, reports Time magazine. Stevens gave up his successful pop career in the late 1970s, taking the name Yusuf Islam and converting to Islam.

An art teacher who was jailed for having sex with a 13-year-old pupil and bore his child has said that she and the now 21-year-old plan to marry, according to news reports late on Thursday. Mary Kay LeTourneau, who was 34 when she began a relationship with then-sixth grader Vili Fualaau in 1996, has reunited with him since her release from prison earlier this year.

United States President George Bush has decided to lift sanctions against Libya, which he expects to trigger release of more than -billion to families of the Lockerbie victims, a senior administration official said. Bush could announce the step as early as Monday, the official said on Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity because Bush prefers to publicise such moves himself.

United States President George Bush and his Democratic rival John Kerry clashed on Tuesday over the US economy and the Iraq war as the US military death toll reached 1 000. Bush seized on Kerry’s latest criticism of the US-led war in Iraq as a new sign of the Massachusetts senator’s indecision, which Republicans have sought to highlight in the campaign for the November 2 vote.

An -million joint Japanese-United States project to research cosmic rays was slated for groundbreaking on Saturday in the desert state of Utah. The Japanese government is contributing -million to the project, which involves building three hilltop ”fluorescence” detectors and another 576 smaller detectors scattered over a 1 000 square kilometre area.