Beirut, February 13
Nine persons were reported killed today when two buses were hit by an explosion in a village north of the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Private television station LBC, quoting military sources, said nine persons were killed, although there was no immediate confirmation.

Civil defence official George Kettaneh said that ambulances had taken three dead and seven injured from the scene in the village of Ain Alak in the Metn region north of Beirut.

The blast, whose cause was not immediately known, comes on the eve of the commemorations for the second anniversary of the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

"For the moment, all we know is that an explosion targeted two buses," a security source said, without giving details of any victims or the precise nature of the blast.

Lebanon has been rocked by a wave of killings and attacks against prominent anti-Syrian figures since the killing of Hariri in a massive Beirut truck bombing on February 14, 2005.

Political tensions are continuing to run high, with the pro-Syrian opposition holding an open-ended protest in Beirut aimed at forcing out the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.

The anniversary of Hariri's assassination tomorrow also falls six months to the day since a UN-brokered ceasefire brought an end to a devastating war between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite fundamentalist group Hezbollah. — AFP

Washington, February 13
President George W Bush is trying to convince the world that he has no intention of invading Iran, but is running into sceptics as US charges Iran of shipping bombs into Iraq as a step toward conflict.

Having ordered two aircraft carriers to the Gulf and accused Iranians of providing Iraqi militants bombs that have killed 170 Americans, Bush and his top aides are struggling to tamp down talk that a new war is brewing.

Bush himself prompted the talk in a January 10 speech outlining his reworked Iraq strategy, by saying ''Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces.'' A debate has since raged over whether he has an attack on Iran in mind.

The White House sees tensions with Iran over its nuclear ambitions as a separate issue from Tehran's alleged bomb supplies in Iraq. Bush wants the nuclear issue resolved diplomatically, but has authorised US forces to capture or kill Iranians involved in attacks on Americans or Iraqis inside Iraq.

“We're not getting ready for war on Iran, but what we are doing is we're protecting our own people. And we're going to do it. And we've made it clear that that is going to be a priority,'' White House spokesman Tony Snow said yesterday.

Democrats say they fear a repeat of 2002 and 2003, when Bush made a case for war against Iraq based on weapons of mass destruction that were never found.

''That's how we got into the mess in Iraq. That's why some of us supported those resolutions because of doctored information. So I'm very sceptical based on recent past history about this administration leading us in that direction,'' Connecticut Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd, a presidential hopeful, said on CBS.

''I guess my reaction to all the noise about 'he wants to go to war' -- first of all I don't understand the tactics. I guess I would say it's political,'' Bush told C-SPAN on Monday.

Anthony Cordesman, a West Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the Iran war debate appeared to be driven by Democrats looking for an issue and neo-conservatives who would like to see regime change in Tehran.

''It's quite clear from the content that they are trying to stop the flow of money and arms into Iraq and not trying to provide a war with Iran. If anything, the signals are more about deterrence than anything else,'' he said.

The Bush administration is trying to walk a fine line between threatening Iran over its alleged bomb supplies in Iraq, which Tehran denies, and underscoring its reliance on diplomacy over Iran's nuclear ambitions. On the issue of Iranian bombs in Iraq, US officials are adamant that the evidence is true. — Reuters

New York, February 13
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has rejected the US charge that his country is supplying weapons to Shiite Iraqis and warned that any attack on his country would be "severely punished".

"I think that Americans have made a mistake in Iraq and are losing, and this is a shame for Americans of course, and that's why they are trying to point their fingers at other people, and pointing fingers at others will not solve the problem," he told ABC network.

"We would like to have the strengthening of Iraq and the stability of the Iraq government...But we think that the US is following another policy trying to hide its defeats and failures. This is not a solution to the problem," he said. — PTI

Houston, February 13
Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams, along with two other colleagues, experienced a power breakdown aboard the International Space Station, knocking out all communication with stations on the earth.

The glitch took place on Sunday but all the systems were restored within a day, NASA officials at the Johnson Space Centre here, said.

On Sunday, a power channel in the station's port 4 (P4) solar array electrical system shut down due to a fault in an electrical distribution device known as the direct current switching unit, the officials said.

"The station's three crew members were not in any danger, but it did turn an off-duty day into a full work shift," the space agency said. The power drop led to a temporary loss of ISS communication and the shutdown of heating units, science equipment and one of the three operating gyroscopes used for attitude control.

NASA officials said it took around 31 hours for flight controllers and the space station's crew to restore the systems to normal.

"I want to congratulate you all on doing a good job. Hats off to you guys and thanks," the Expedition 14 commander, Michael Lopez-Alegria, said to flight controllers in a message broadcast on NASA TV after power was restored. — PTI 

New York, February 13
Texas' Austin city has got its first Hindu temple and community centre.

The 76-acre temple and community centre cost $15 million, funded mostly by donations from the Hindu community and some from corporations such as Dell Inc.

"The centre is available to everyone. There are only a few restrictions, which include no meat, no alcohol and no shoes," said Harish Kotecha, treasurer of the centre.

Earlier, the Hindu community of Austin had to move from facility to facility for daily ceremonies and cultural activities. Hundreds of people attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony by Senator John Cornyn.

"The great thing about this culture is that it is not exclusionary, it is inclusive," Cornyn said. "People are welcomed without regard to religion, nationality or race." He said the Indian-American community in Texas was well educated and productive and would enrich the culture and the quality of life in Austin.

The centre will offer educational classes that will include teachings on discipline in life and Hinduism, according to the Daily Texan newspaper.

"The classes will teach about why we practise Hinduism," said Jagannath Vedula, a religious coordinator.