Washington, September 21 : A major mapping program known as BOSS (Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey), started in midsummer 2008, would help to probe the presence of dark energy in the universe.

Investigating dark energy has emerged as one of the most crucial tasks of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), under which falls the latest survey.

Astrophysicist David Schlegel, since 2004 a member of the Physics Division at the U. S. Department of Energy''s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is the principal investigator of BOSS.

Rio de Janeiro - A 77-year-old Brazilian former model who was the young love of US Republican presidential candidate John McCain has been found by a newspaper in the South American country.

Maria Garcinda Tedixeira de Jesus met McCain in 1957 while he was in Rio de Janeiro on leave from his Navy ship. At the time, he was still a cadet at the US Naval Academy. He spent every free minute with the Brazilian beauty and describes the encounter in his 1999 memoir Faith of my Fathers.

New York - The US presidential election is going international as Republican rival John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin will be joining an annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations this week.

Details of their visit to New York remain sketchy.

McCain has accepted an invitation to speak at former president Bill Clinton's Global Initiative Foundation, which focuses on climate change, energy and development issues and will include more than 50 current and former heads of state.

Washington - The US government is submitting a finance rescue package to Congress that is valued at 700 to 800 billion dollars, media reports said Saturday.

In the largest intervention in capital markets since the 1930s, the administration of US President George W Bush Friday proposed to mop up bad mortgage debt with its first system-wide attack on turmoil in the finance industry that threatens the nation with economic collapse.

Washington - US President George W Bush on Saturday condemned the terrorist bombing at a hotel in Islambad that killed at least 50 people and injured hundreds more.

"This bombing, the latest in a series of terrorist attacks, is part of a continuing assault on the people of Pakistan. This attack is a reminder of the ongoing threat faced by Pakistan, the United States, and all those who stand against violent extremism," Bush said in a statement.

Washington- President George W Bush said Saturday that bold action was needed to bailout US financial institutions and prevent a broader economic collapse.

The Bush administration, seeking to head off the country's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of 1929, moved this week to soak up the brunt of banks' mortgage-related assets, back money market mutual funds, curb certain stock-trading techniques and make more money available for loans to consumers.