HOUSTON, Mar 16 (Agencies): Spacewalking astronauts attached a pair of arms to a Canadian-built robot that will act as a mechanical maintenance man to the International Space Station.
Veteran astronaut Richard Linnehan and rookie partner Michael Foreman completed their spacewalk after a little over seven hours at 2:57 a.m.
EDT/0657 GMT on Sunday.
It was the second of five spacewalks planned during the shuttle Endeavour's 12-day visit to the station.
Attention on Sunday will turn to testing the arms of the robot, dubbed Dextre.
Each of its arms is 3.4 meters while the body is about 12 feet in length, giving it the look of a large, human-like creature with gangly limbs.
The $209 million robot is officially set to come to life at the end of a third spacewalk Monday.
The work wasn't easy.
Grunting and groaning, Linnehan wrestled to free the first arm from its restraining straps so it could be attached to the robot.
"We might have to get medieval on Mr.
Dextre," a frustrated Linnehan joked.
NASA might be high-tech but the arm was eventually released with the help of a pry bar and a lot of muscle.
They were then able to get on with their assembly job.
"Good job guys, we now have a one-arm monster," shuttle astronaut Bob Behnken told the spacewalkers by radio after the first arm was successfully attached.
The robot can be mounted on the station's crane to transport equipment and handle routine maintenance chores, such as replacing electronics boxes.
While the spacewalk took place, crewmates set up equipment inside the first piece of Japan's newly arrived space laboratory which was also brought up with the shuttle.
The shuttle arrived at the orbital outpost Wednesday for a a construction and maintenance mission, the second of five visits to the space station NASA plans this year.
A sixth shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope is also scheduled for late summer.
One killed in Colombia hotel blast BOGOTA, Mar 16 (Agencies): One person has been killed in a blast in a hotel in the northwestern Colombian town of San Rafael, Spain's EFE news agency reported Sunday.
Edgar Gracia, chief of police in Antioquia, the region where San Rafael is located, said some unidentified people left the explosives in one of the rooms of the Hotel Magdalena Friday night.
The manager of the hotel, Orlando Ciro Velasquez, died in the blast, while two of his associates were injured.
Bush seeks Congress help to fight economic crisis WASHINGTON, Mar 16 (Agencies): President George W.
Bush has asked the US Congress to help fight an extended economic downturn by making his tax cuts permanent, passing free trade deals and sensibly addressing problems in the ailing housing market.
Focusing his weekly radio address on assuring Americans that his administration is taking steps to deal with what many view as a serious economic crisis, Bush Saturday pointed to the passage of a stimulus package as well as steps he has taken to help the housing markets.
Bush warned Congress that he would oppose any measure that would 'artificially prop up home prices', adding: 'When you are steering a car in a rough patch, one of the worst things you can do is overcorrect.' The president also urged Congress to 'modernise the Federal House Administration, and allow state housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to help homeowners refinance their mortgages'.
The stimulus package giving tax rebates for families and businesses should begin to lift the economy in the second quarter of the year and have an even stronger impact in the third quarter, Bush said.
But he urged caution about doing more, particularly about the crisis in the housing market where prices are tumbling and home foreclosures have soared to an all-time high.
'If we were to pursue some of the sweeping government solutions that we hear about in Washington, we would make a complicated problem even worse - and end up hurting far more homeowners than we help,' the president said.
'In the long run, we can be confident that our economy will continue to grow, but in the short run, it is clear that growth has slowed,' he said.
Bush said he opposed several measures pending on Capitol Hill to deal with the housing crisis.
They included proposals to allocate $400 billion to purchase foreclosed-upon and now-abandoned homes, to change the bankruptcy code to allow judges to adjust mortgage rates and to artificially prop up home prices.
'Many young couples trying to buy their first home have been priced out of the market because of inflated prices,' the president said.
'The market now is in the process of correcting itself, and delaying that correction would only prolong the problem.' Bush said his administration has put forth steps offering flexibility for refinancing to homeowners with good credit histories yet having trouble paying their mortgage.
However, the Democrats who control the Congress said they would try to strengthen the economy with measures dealing with housing, energy efficiency and renewable energy.
'The president continues to convince himself that inaction is the cure-all for the economic problems hurting hardworking Americans,' Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said.
'But Democrats know that wait-and-see is not a responsible strategy for an economy that is teetering on the brink of recession.
'Wages and home values are down,' Reid said, 'but prices for everything from health care to tuition to energy are up.
Just this week, oil and gas prices reached record highs, while the value of the dollar reached historic lows.
'I hope the president, who has been slow to acknowledge this problem, joins us in recognising how urgently we need a solution.' Indian American group meet in Chicago to improve India's villages WASHINGTON, Mar 16 (Agencies): A group of Indian American activists plan to bring together friends of India who wish to play an active role in improving conditions in India's villages at a conference in Chicago in May.
Sponsored by 'US-India Friendship' group, the May 3-4 India Rural Development Action Programme Conference aims to develop concrete action programmes for water development, healthcare, primary education and economic development of Indian villages.
It is a follow up to the December 2007 Rural India Learning Journey undertaken by 24 Indian Americans to rural areas in Tamil Nadu.
It gave the participants a first-hand look at how the villagers of India are faring compared to the rapid progress of the upper and middle-class in the cities, the sponsors said.
The experience, while certainly eye-opening, was perhaps unexpectedly a positive one, according to Ram Narayanan, coordinator of the sponsoring enterprise US-India Friendship.
'Some of India's dynamic social entrepreneurs, otherwise known as NGOs (non-government organisations), are already in action lending a helping hand to transform rural India,' he said.
Most of the areas visited fell within rain shadow regions where livelihood is primarily agricultural and heavily dependent on scanty, seasonal rainfall.
All of the villages suffer from acute shortages of drinking water and water for growing crops, as well as other poverty related infrastructural deficiencies, Narayanan said.
Many villagers themselves, particularly the women, are also pulling themselves up, making heroic efforts to conserve rainwater resources, and improve their livelihood in all aspects, he said.
'What we saw and experienced,' said Narayanan, 'gave us renewed hope that rural India is not a basket case.
Still a lot more needs to be done.' Narayanan and the other participants in the Learning Journey consider the Chicago Action Programme Conference the logical next step towards making a concrete contribution to the future of India.
During the May 3-4 conference, participants in the Learning Journey will share their experiences and discuss the work of credible NGOs already making strides in developing rural India.
They also plan to formulate specific project possibilities and encourage others to participate in future Learning Journeys to different Indian states in 2008 and 2009.
Ultimately, Narayanan said: 'Our objective is to get together friends of India in the US including Indian Americans.
We want all of rural India to make progress during the next decade or two - including the states of the north and east that have lagged behind.' Ban on religious charms at Trinidad school upsets Hindus PORT-OF-SPAIN, Mar 16 (Agencies): A ban on Hindu students wearing a 'raksha' (religious charm) after the festival of Shivaratri at a school in Trinidad has upset the Hindu community in the Caribbean nation.
Students of the Cunupia High School in Central Trinidad were recently told by security guards to remove the raksha tied to their wrists, causing much consternation among them.
Satnarayan Maharaj, secretary general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) said in an interview that he was 'most distressed when an official of the Cunupia High School ordered Hindu students to remove rakshas from their wrists earlier this week'.
He said the action was 'an insult to members of the Hindu community'.
Maharaj added: 'School officials should take the time to become aware of the cultural practices of their students and make allowances.' Teachers of the school, however, were sympathetic towards the children and their religious freedom.
Hindu activist and religious thinker Surujrattan Rambachan, who is also mayor of Chaguanas town, said that teachers wrote to him, complaining about the harassment to scores of Hindu students, and sought his intervention.
In their complaint, teachers wrote: 'To our horror, on entry to school...we were stopped by a number of Hindu students who were abhorred at the fact that they were not being permitted into the school premises as they were wearing raksha.' The letter said that following investigations it was found that maintenance, training and security (MTS) guards 'were forcing children to cut off their raksha and in one instance, a girl had to tear the raksha off her hand, which resulted in her hand being bruised'.
The teachers felt the students' fundamental rights were violated.
There has been no official explanation or apology from the ministry of education so far.
The nearly 500,000-strong Indian diaspora comprises 40 percent of the Trinidad and Tobago's population.
Five injured in attack on Tamil gathering BERNE, Mar 16 (Agencies): Five people were injured when six gunmen burst into a church in a Swiss city where a group of 50 Tamils were holding a private party, reports said Sunday.
The gunmen opened fire at the evangelical church at Bumpliz Saturday, according to police.
The gunmen, also thought to be Tamils, were masked and armed with guns, swords and other weapons.
Police said they released chemicals before escaping.
Five injured people were taken to hospital, but none of them suffered bullet wounds.
Police believe a family dispute may have been the reason for the attack.
Nine die in a jeep accident in NWFP PESHAWAR, Mar 16 (Agencies): At least nine people lost their lives on Sunday, when their jeep fell down a deep ravine in Abbotabad disrict in the North West Forntier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan.
According to sources, the accident occurred as the jeep with high speed tried to move round a road turn.
The deceased belonged to Patangi area.
The Loralai-bound jeep was carrying 14 passengers.
MPA Javed Abbasi was behind this ill-fated jeep; he kickstarted the relief operations by gathering the local people.
Police, protestors clash on Hungarian holiday BUDAPEST, Mar 16 (Agencies): Hungarian police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of protestors who responded with Molotov cocktails and stones following a right-wing rally as Hungary commemorated the 1848 revolution against the Austrian Habsburgs.
Trouble broke out following the rally and rock concert in downtown Budapest Saturday when Gyorgy Budahazy, one of the ringleaders of anti-government riots in September 2006, called on supporters to march on a building where Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany was giving a speech.
Several hundred protestors, many of them youths wearing masks, headed in the direction of the building, reportedly beating photographers and cameramen along the way.
Riot police then confronted the protestors, facing a rain of stones and Molotov cocktails as they attempted to disperse them.
By late evening, at least 15 people had been arrested and two police officers injured.
Tensions had been raised by a referendum, held last Sunday, in which Hungarians overwhelmingly voted to cancel fees for medical treatment and higher education.
The fees were part of economic reforms aimed at cutting the budget deficit and eventually allowing Hungary to adopt the euro.
Centre-right opposition party Fidesz had billed the referendum as a judgement on an unpopular government and its economic reforms, but has refrained from repeating earlier calls for the government to resign should it lose the referendum.
An official late afternoon rally organized by Fidesz in downtown Budapest passed off peacefully, with tens of thousands heading off after listening to party leader Viktor Orban speak.
However, right-wing groups that have been involved in anti-government rioting over the last 18 months fulfilled expectations that they would use the referendum result to call for Gyurcsany to go and potentially renew street violence.
Police cordoned off parliament and also maintained a heavy presence at many of the official events commemorating the revolution.
Nonetheless, earlier in the day, protestors targeted Budapest Mayor Gabor Demszky, a member of junior coalition party the Alliance of Free Democrats, with eggs and stones as part of demonstrations against the hugely unpopular government.
The trouble was the latest flare-up in 18 months of on-off anti-government protests and violence.
Last year's 1848 commemorations were marred when police clashed with around 1,000 protestors demanding the release of a right-wing leader who had been arrested for his involvement in previous riots.
Trouble first broke out in Hungary in September 2006 following the leak of a tape on which Gyurcsany admitted lying about the state of the economy.
Rioting continued sporadically during the following month, and a Fidesz rally Oct 23, marking the 50th anniversary of Hungary's failed 1956 uprising against Soviet rule, ended in chaos as violent protestors and riot police mixed in with people leaving the event.
Four confirmed killed in Albanian munitions depot blast TIRANA, Mar 16 (Agencies): Four people were confirmed killed and more than 200 were injured in a series of explosions at a munitions depot Saturday near the Albanian capital Tirana - but there was concern that the number of dead and hurt may dramatically rise Local reports spoke of at least six deaths, including that of a child, in the blast in one of four depots in a compound at Gerdec, on the outskirts of the city.
'The number of victims in the depot is big.
We don't have a complete report on the tragedy, but the first signs are extremely disconcerting.
This is an extreme tragedy for us,' Prime Minister Sali Berisha said at the scene.
It appeared that most of the injured were caught by the blast - heard 200 km away in the Macedonian capital Skopje and registered as an earthquake by seismographs in Strasbourg - outside the depot.
'We don't know the exact number of victims, but we fear the worst regarding the 63 employees in the depot,' government spokeswoman Juela Mecani said.
Interior Minister Bujar Nishani said that police has established contact with a group of the employees who were trapped in one of the compound tunnels.
'They are not in danger, but are trapped in a tunnel which we can't reach because of the repeated explosions,' he told reporters.
Many of the injured were driving along the nearby Tirana-Durres highway.
The power of the blast shattered most of the windows at Tirana's Mother Teresa airport.
The airport was briefly closed for a check of the navigation and communication equipment.
Residents in the area had to be evacuated as the explosions in the depot continued and ordnance was strewn far beyond the depot's two-kilometre perimeter.
Yet, hundreds of people were reportedly still in the danger zone late Saturday evening, afraid to move as the explosions continued to go off throughout the area.
Outside the four-kilometre 'red zone' guarded by police, thousands of people frantically searched for relatives.
Mecani said that US military personnel were also at the site, which was being prepared for decommission.
It is believed that mishandling of the ordnance - some of it stored there since World War II - triggered the blasts.
It was reported that a US company was commissioned to clean out the old storages and deactivate the ordnance.
Albanian authorities continued broadcasting appeals for blood donors and hundreds in Albania and in the neighbouring Kosovo rushed in response, reports said.
Islamic Jihad says it has developed long-range rocket TEL AVIV, Mar 16 (Agencies): The radical Islamic Jihad organisation threatened to intensify its rocket attacks against Israel, saying in a leaflet Sunday that it has developed a new, longer-range rocket which can strike further into the Jewish state.
The organisation also confirmed in the leaflet that three of its militants killed in an Israeli air strike late Saturday were on their way to launch rockets at southern Israel.
The Jihad added that it would continue to fire rockets from the Gaza Strip as a response to Israeli attacks in the West Bank.
Five Islamic Jihad cadres were killed Wednesday in the attacks.
As a result of the deaths of the Jihad members, who were on Israel's wanted list, the militant organisations intensified their rocket fire, after a comparative lull of several days in which few rockets were launched.
The rockets possessed by the militant organisations, can hit Israeli towns and villages adjacent to the Gaza Strip, and also the coastal city of Ashkelon, about 15 km from the salient, which has recently been struck by Russian-made Grad-type Katyusha missiles.
UAE to end illiteracy in seven years ABU DHABI, Mar 16 (Agencies): The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has pledged to eradicate illiteracy within seven years to become the first Arab country to attain 100 percent literacy, WAM news agency reported.
The country hopes to bid farewell to illiteracy by 2015 or even before, Arabic newspaper Al Ittihad quoted officials of the education ministry as saying.
A recent survey showed that the illiteracy rate in the UAE has declined from 22 percent in 2000 to 9 percent in 2005.
Iranian conservatives lead in capital Tehran TEHRAN, Mar 16 (Agencies): Conservatives lead in the Iranian capital's constituency, whose 30 seats are some of the most politically significant in Iran's parliament, according to results Sunday after parliamentary elections across the country two days earlier.
According to initial results carried by state news agency ISNA, Parliament Speaker Gholam-Ali Hadad-Adel, a close aide of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, leads the Tehran list, followed by other conservatives, most of them supporters of the president.
The only reformist candidate who could slip into the top 30 is Majid Ansari.
Other reformists are considerably behind.
Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pur Mohammadi said Saturday that the conservative faction had so far gained more than 70 percent of the votes in the provinces in Friday's parliamentary elections.
The lead by the conservatives was expected as they formed the majority of the candidates, after more than half of the reformist candidates were disqualified by the senate-like Guardian Council for alleged lack of loyalty to the Islamic system.
The most prominent Ahmadinejad opponent already elected to parliament is Ali Larijani, who gained a big win in the religious city of Qom, 130 km south of Tehran.
He represents the so-called 'revisionists', a group that used to back the president but gradually grew apart from him and formed their own faction.
Larijani resigned last October as chief nuclear negotiator after grave differences with Ahmadinejad over the country's nuclear policies and has since then been regarded as a critic of the president, especially over economic policies which have caused high inflation.
Security improves in Iraq but problems still remain: UN NEW YORK, Mar 16 (Agencies): The security situation in Iraq remains tense despite a drop in violence over the last few months, the UN mission to the country has reported.
Though attacks fell overall in the second half of 2007, especially in the capital region, violence increased in other areas, and it remained unclear whether the reductions were long-term, the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said in a report Saturday.
'The extent to which the decrease in violence was sustainable remained unclear, with the security situation still precarious in many parts of the country,' the UNAMIS report said.
'As security improved in parts of Baghdad and other locations, it deteriorated elsewhere with heightened activity by insurgent groups and others in governorates such as Mosul and Diyala,' the report said.
The UN attributed the decrease in violence to the so-called surge in US troops, primarily to Baghdad, which began in the spring.
But it warned that civilians were still being deliberately targeted by both Sunni and Shiite militant groups.
The UN credited the Iraqi government with improvements in its judicial system but said there remained a long road ahead.
Howeever, the UN mission cited long delays in reviewing detainee cases, lack of access to attorneys and investigation of torture allegations as areas in need of improvement.
Russia to offer cutting edge technology if India opts for MiG-35 MOSCOW, Mar 16 (Agencies): Russia has offered to hand over the cutting-edge technology used in its MiG-35 jets to India if it opts for the multirole fighters.
"If the government of India decides to opt for our latest MiG-35 fighter, India will be handed key technologies incorporated in this Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), some of which were developed for the fifth generation fighter," Russian Aircraft Corporation (RAC) spokesperson Elena Fedorova said.
Russia has fielded its latest MiG-35 against US F-16, F-18, French Rafale, European Eurofighter and Swedish Grippen in the Indian tender for acquisition of 126 medium multirole fighters worth 10 billion dollars.
"This will also boost India-Russia business cooperation in hi-tech industry," Fedorova said.
"RAC MiG has always delivered the most advanced technology and platforms to India, which for various political and secrecy considerations were denied to other countries," Fedorova underscored citing the example of MiG-29, which was given to India ahead of any of the ex-Soviet Warsaw pact member country.
China invokes Panchen Lama as Tibetan protests spread BEIJING, Mar 16 (Agencies): China Sunday issued a statement condemning rioting in Lhasa from its state-appointed Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Panchen Lama, amid reports that independence protests had spread to several more monastery towns.
China's 18-year-old Panchen Lama was chosen in 1995 by state-sponsored Tibetan Buddhist leaders.
A rival Panchen Lama, chosen and recognised by supporters of the exiled Dalai Lama, has reportedly been held under virtual house arrest in China since he was six years old.
An estimated 3,000 Tibetan protesters in the town of Xiahe, near Labrang monastery in China's Gansu province, Saturday shouted statements in support of the Dalai Lama and called for the release of the Panchen Lama, US-based Radio Free Asia reported.
More protests were reported in Lithang, Sershul and Ngaba towns in a traditional Tibetan area of Kham now under China's Sichuan province, reports said.
Monks also protested at Samye monastery, south of Lhasa, while troops with tanks and armoured personnel carriers imposed virtual marital law in the Tibetan capital, the broadcaster said.
The Indian-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said paramilitary police fired tear gas and warning shots into the air to disperse the protestors in Xiahe.
Some of the monks and lay Tibetans who joined the rally were beaten or arrested by police, the centre said.
Chinese authorities Saturday demanded that Tibetan rioters in Lhasa surrender to the police or face more serious punishment for the violence that reportedly claimed dozens of lives following five days of escalating pro-independence protests.
State media said at least 10 people died in fires in Lhasa Saturday, while the Tibetan government in exile, based in the Indian city of Dharamsala, said it had unconfirmed reports of about 100 deaths in the city.
The Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's highest leader, fled to India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against the occupation of Tibet by Chinese troops since 1951.
The current protests began Monday to mark the 49th anniversary of the 1959 uprising.
The reincarnate Panchen Lama is often considered second in importance to the Dalai Lama by Tibetan Buddhists.
Amin Fahim cancels meetings with Sharif, Qazi Hussain ISLAMABAD, Mar 16 (Agencies): One of the prime ministerial candidates of the Pakistan People's Party, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, on Sunday decided not to meet Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif and Jamaat Islami Amir Qazi Hussain.
Fahim was scheduled to meet both the leaders this morning.
Fahim said he was scheduled to arrive today in Lahore to hold the meetings, however, he cancelled the programme owing to his party related schedule here in Islamabad.
Meanwhile, the PPP and PML-N are holding meetings of their parliamentarians here.
These sessions would mull over the significant affairs including future course of action, The News reported.
Special team to investigate Islamabad bomb blast ISLAMABAD, Mar 16 (Agencies): A special investigation team will probe into the bomb blast that took place at an Italian restaurant in Islamabad in which at least 11 people were killed and several others injured.
The team headed by the SSP Islamabad has been formed to probe the incident.
Forensic experts have gathered evidence from the restaurant to conduct chemical analysis.
According to The News, the investigation team has decided to include the restaurant staff in the investigation.
The senior security official said five to six kilograms of explosives with pellets and ball bearings were used in the blasts, a trademark of pro-Taliban militants.
The attack is expected to put pressure on Pakistan's new government.
The bomb exploded at around 8:40 p.m.
Pakistan time in the backyard lawn of the "Luna Caprese" restaurant located in Sector F-7 in front of Super Market, Islamabad where approximately twenty-five persons were dining, mostly foreigners.
A Turkish nurse identified as Ellane and 10 others were killed in the blast.
Ellane was an employ of the US Embassy.
Seven Americans, a Canadian, a Somalian, a Japanese and two Pakistanis were injured in the incident.
Dalai Lama says he is committed to non-violence BIEJING, Mar 16 (Agencies): The Dalai Lama says he is completely committed to non-violence and denies that he was behind the violence in Tibet.
Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama offered prayers for peace and security of his fellow countrymen after the violent anti-China protests in his homeland that claimed at least 10 lives.
The Dalai Lama offered prayers in Tibetans main temple at Macleodganj "Tsunglan Khanagh" for peace and security of his fellow Tibetans subjected to "brute force" by the Chinese.
While the Dalai Lama offered prayers, hundreds of Tibetans sat on dharna outside the temple in support of pro-independence street protesters in Lhasa.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Tibetans today held a protest march from Macleodganj to Dharamsala raising anti-China slogans.
Kangra Superintendent of Police Atul Fulzele said tight security arrangements has been made to avoid any untoward incident.
He said the foreigners participating in protest march of Tibetans here are video-graphed and their details were being sent to respective Embassies in Delhi.
Meanwhile, the Tibetan protesters who started a fresh march from Dhera yesterday as part of their homeland journey managed to cross Kangra border.
By the time the information about their movement reached the police headquarters these marchers had crossed the boundry of the district, police sources said, adding neighbouring Una district has been informed about them.
When contacted, Superintendent of Police of Una Gyaneshwar Singh told agencies that tight security arrangements has been made in the district to check any untoward incident.
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