Washington, Oct 4: NASA has picked up a research team from Arizona State University (ASU) to boost the search for extraterrestrial life, by refining the criteria that guide the search for life.

Humans have long pondered the possibility that life exists beyond Earth. The quest for habitable worlds has focused on searching for water, but “following the water” turns out to be too general a criterion.

The list of planets and satellites that possess liquid water is growing faster than can be explored.

Washington - Simon Johnson, the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, warned of a global recession as a result of the devastating financial crisis that has struck the United St

Washington - US President George W Bush Friday thanked the US Congress for passage of the emergency rescue plan for the country's finance system but warned that economic improvement won't happen "overnight."

"It will take some time for this legislation to have its full impact on our economy," Bush told reporters at the White House less than an hour after the measure cleared its final hurdle in the House of Representatives.

Bush said he would sign the legislation into law.

Bush, an ardent Republican advocate of free markets, over the past year has insisted the markets would solve the growing credit crunch caused by mortgage assets gone sour, and his philosophy came through in his remarks.

Washington - The US House of Representatives approved a revised financial rescue plan on Friday that paved the way for the largest government intervention in capital markets in the history of the country.

President George W Bush signed the bill later Friday, allowing the government to acquire up to 700 billion dollars in soured mortgage assets that are at the heart of the credit crisis.

The House voted by a resounding 263-171 in favour after rejecting an earlier version of the bill by 228-205 on Monday. The Senate approved the same package on Wednesday.

Washington - US stocks dropped Friday over concerns that that the 700-billion-dollar rescue plan approved earlier in the day by the House of Representatives would not be enough to loosen up credit markets and prevent a recession.

The House voted by a resounding 263-171 in favour after rejecting an earlier version of the bill by 228-205 on Monday. The Senate approved the same package earlier this week and the bill has been signed by President George W Bush, who had urged the House to reconsider or face a long and painful recession.

Major US stock indices were up more than 1 per cent shortly after the vote, but slid by closing.

Washington - US stocks rallied for the first time in three days as the US House of Representatives began debate Friday on a new version of the finance rescue plan that the White House says is desperately needed.

Wachovia Corp rallied as much as 80 per cent after Wells Fargo & Co, the biggest West Coast bank, agreed to buy the lender for about 15.1 billion dollars.

The US jobless rate remained steady at a rate of 6.1 per cent in September, unchanged from the month before, but non-farm payrolls have shed another 159,000 jobs and employment continued to fall in construction, manufacturing and retail trade, the US Department of Labour said Friday.