Washington  - The US House of Representatives on Wednesday passed major legislation aimed at limiting the economic fallout from the US housing crisis and providing relief to struggling homeowners.

The long-awaited bill expands a programme that helps struggling homeowners refinance into government-insured mortgages - effectively guaranteeing up to
300-billion-dollars worth of loans - and approved a government contingency plan in the event of the collapse of lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Washington  - Grinding closer to the Mexico-Texas coast in the Gulf of Mexico Hurricane Dolly Wednesday forced residents of Brownsville, Texas to brace for the border town's first hurricane in almost a decade.

Already on Wednesday some 500 residents of San Benito, Texas had fled their homes to seek shelter in a school building.

Washington  - Northwest Airlines is flying deeper into the red in the second quarter it announced on Wednesday as a result of high fuel prices and a writedown of its assets. The loss was 377 million dollars after a profit of 2.1 billion dollars for the year earlier period.

Washington, July 23: Communities living near vulnerable creeks and rivers may soon get advance notice of potentially deadly floods, thanks to the development of a new forecasting system.

Being tested this summer by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, the system is known as the NCAR Front Range Flash Flood Prediction System.

It combines detailed atmospheric conditions with information about stream flows to predict floods along specific streams and catchments.

Washington, July 23: Adolescent girls who are expelled, suspended or drop out of high school before they graduate are more likely to have a serious bout of depression by age 21 than boys with similar experiences, according to a new study.

The study showed that girls who had early conduct problems in elementary school also were at an increased risk for depression in early adulthood.

However, it did not show any link for boys between academic, behaviour or social problems and depression at age 21.

Washington, July 23: The science behind age-old magic tricks can help in better understanding of how humans see, think, and act, say researchers at the University of British Columbia and Durham University in the U. K.

The study, which is published in the current online issue of the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, reveals that the elements of human cognition and perception not yet fully understood by scientists may be clarified by analysing tricks and techniques used by magicians over thousands of years.