CHICAGO - ABRAXANE, a new cancer drug designed to be less toxic than standard chemotherapy, did a better job of keeping cancer at bay in women whose breast cancer had spread, US researchers said on Tuesday.

They said the Abraxane, made by Abraxis Bioscience and known generically as nab-paclitaxel, kept cancer from progressing nearly twice as long as the Sanofi-Aventis cancer drug Taxotere, or docetaxel.

PARIS - WASHINGTON defended its plans to cut its greenhouse gas emissions as among the most ambitious in the world on Tuesday as major economies meeting in Paris rallied around a Mexican plan to raise cash to fight climate change.

'The United States is proposing to make a seismic change' in toughening policy, US Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern said after two-day talks among 17 major emitters including China, the European Union, India and Russia.

TEHRAN - ACCESS to the popular social networking Web site Facebook is back in Iran after being blocked late last week.

Facebook was cut off on Saturday, leading to accusations that authorities were trying to muzzle one of the main campaign tools of reformists opposing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 12 elections.