Baghdad - US Defence Secretary Robert Gates arrived in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Monday on the eve of a shift in command of the US-led forces.

US General David Petraeus is spending his last day in Iraq on Monday as commander of US-led forces.

In a ceremony that will be held today, and attended by Gates, Petraeus will hand command to his former deputy Lieutenant-General Ray Odierno.

Odierno served as Petraeus right hand for 15 months until February. He will be promoted to full general on Tuesday.

Washington, September 15 : An Indian-origin mechanical engineer and his colleagues at the University of Utah have developed a new approach to slice thin wafers of the chemical element germanium, so that they can be used in the most efficient type of solar power cells.

Dinesh Rakwal, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering, believes that the new method can lower the cost of such cells by reducing the waste and breakage of the brittle semiconductor.

Washington, Sept 15 : New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is trying hard to stem the recent shift of white female voters to the Republican ticket.

During the brutal Democratic primary fight, Clinton had driven a wedge between female white voters while countering Senator Barack Obama.

She told an enthusiastic crowd of about 1,600 made up mostly of white women, in the gymnasium of Ellet High School, Ohio, that though she and Obama started out on two separate paths, they are now on one journey.

“With your help, it will lead straight to the White House,” added Clinton.

Washington, Sept 15 : Even as it became amply clear that former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf will vacate the presidency soon, “shudders” were felt in Washington as who would actually control the nuclear command after him, said a noted American journalist based in Washington.

He said that though the nuclear command authority’s leaders were Musharraf “acolytes” “but they are thought to be military professionals first, and, therefore, responsible.”

New York, Sept. 15 : Wall Street was in turmoil on Sunday as Merrill Lynch found shelter in a 44 billion dollar takeover by Bank of America and Lehman Brothers headed towards filing for bankruptcy.

BOFA’S bid for Merrill came as the world’s top banks appeared close to abandoning efforts to save Lehman and set out to build a firewall against further financial chaos with a 50 billion dollar liquidity pool to support other vulnerable institutions.

Wasilla (Alaska), Sept. 15 : Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin has claimed that her time as mayor of Wasilla taught her how to be a leader and grounded her in the real needs of voters, but a visit to this former mining supply post 40 miles north of Alaska capital Anchorage shows otherwise.

According to the Washington Post, the universe of the mayor of Wasilla is sharply circumscribed and limited Palin''s exposure to issues such as health care, social services, the environment and education.