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Shuttle docks with
station; new equipment to be added
SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) — Space
shuttle Atlantis arrived at the international space station on Wednesday,
bringing a girder that will be the backbone for further construction.
The
two spacecraft linked up as they sailed more than 240 miles above
China. The space station astronauts rang their ship’s bell
as Atlantis docked, to mark the shuttle’s arrival in the tradition
of the high seas.
Atlantis
will spend a full week docked at the space station.
On
Thursday, astronaut Ellen Ochoa will use Atlantis’ robot arm
to place a 44-foot-long,
14 1/2-foot-wide aluminum girder that is full of plumbing and wiring
onto the space station. Then two teams of space walkers will take
turns over several days latching the truss segment — one of
the space station’s most complex pieces — and making power
and data connections.
Cigarette
price up nearly $2 at USC due to vendor costs
(U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES — A $1.94 increase
was imposed on all cigarettes Monday in the Commons at the University
of Southern California because of an unexplained 33-cent hike Philip
Morris introduced last week, said Ronald Ranasinghe, director of
retail operations.
Core-Mark,
USC's cigarette vendor, informed Ranasinghe two weeks ago of the
33-cent rise. Core-Mark added 5 cents for holding costs, which brought
the total increase on USC cigarette sales to $1.25.
Because
of this increase Ranasinghe said he was forced to add $1.56 to make
up for losses. If he had kept cigarettes at the original $4.85 price,
USC would be at a 74 percent loss in labor and storage costs. At
$6.79, the price without sales tax, Ranasinghe barely covers all
of his expenses because most of the money must go toward labor and
storage costs
Newborn
sextuplets growing stronger, 5 off respirator
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Sextuplets
born to a Kansas couple are growing stronger, with only one of the
six still breathing with help from a respirator, doctors said.
Five
of the six babies were taking breast milk through a feeding tube
by Tuesday and the baby on a respirator could be weaned from the
machine as early as Wednesday morning, Dr. Katherine Schooley said.
The sextuplets are also being treated for jaundice, a common malady
with premature infants.
The
babies — Ethan Roy, Melissa Sue, Grant Douglas, Sean Edward,
Jaycie Linette, and Danielle Patrice — will remain at Via Christi
Regional Medical Center-St. Joseph for four to five weeks, doctors
said. Their mother is expected to go home in a few days.
Sondra
Headrick, 33, gave birth to the three boys and three girls by Caesarian
section Saturday afternoon, a day after the birth of a rare set
of quadruplets at another Wichita hospital.
Nine
arrested in attacks, assassination attempt
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Nine suspects
have been arrested in recent attacks on international peacekeepers
and an apparent assassination attempt against the defense minister,
officials said Wednesday. The arrests came amid reports of new tensions
undermining this country’s fragile stability.
Five
arrests were made in an eastern Kabul neighborhood from which two
missiles were fired Sunday at a peacekeepers garrison, said Gen.
Din Muhammad Jurat, an Interior Ministry official.
No
one was injured in the attack on a compound housing German and Danish
troops. But peacekeepers said they believed it was part of a campaign
to discredit interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai’s administration
ahead of the loya jirga, a grand council that meets in June to select
a new government.
Chapel
opened for public to pay last respects to queen
LONDON (AP) — The royal family on
Wednesday opened to the public a small chapel at Windsor Castle
where the Queen Mother Elizabeth was laid to rest beside King George
VI and their younger daughter.
The
coffin of the 101-year-old mother of Queen Elizabeth II was interred
there Tuesday evening in a private family ceremony after a Westminster
Abbey funeral that drew hundreds of thousands of admirers to London.
A
million people turned out Tuesday, police said, to pay their respects
during and after the funeral, including those who lined the route
to Windsor to see the hearse carrying the coffin back to the castle.
Several
hundred people were waiting in line when the chapel was opened in
the precincts of the castle at 10 a.m. Wednesday. It will be open
until April 19.
Justice
Dept. says growing number of incarcerated slows
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of
people in prison grew last year at the slowest rate in three decades,
the Justice Department reported Wednesday.
The
total population in all prisons and jails rose a bit more than 1
percent, nearing 2 million, according to the annual report. As of
June 30, 2001, one of every 145 U.S. residents was behind bars.
Tougher
anti-crime policies, more facilities and longer sentences have caused
the decades-long increase in the prison population. Most of the
growth between 2000 and 2001 came in federal facilities.
Beck
said the federal system could continue to grow at its current pace
as U.S. district court caseloads swell. Much of that caseload is
taken up by drug, immigration and weapons prosecutions.
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