Washington  - Russia's invasion of Georgia has strengthened the need to bring the former Soviet Republic and other countries into the NATO alliance, the White House said Thursday.

"The desire to bring these new countries, these new democracies, and these countries that want to live in freedom and help defend each other, is even strengthened by the past month's activities," spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Washington  - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama criticized his Republican opponents on Thursday for supporting President George W Bush's policies.

The Obama campaign said the speech by John McCain's vice presidential candidate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, at the Republican convention Wednesday night undermines their effort to portray themselves as candidates of change.

Washington, Sept 4 : A group of researchers are working on an air traffic control system that will not require any human input, for all variables including weather conditions as well as current airplane locations and probable routes will be monitored by a computer model.

The computer model, University of Texas professor Constantine Caramanis, lead researcher Cynthia Barnhart, and other colleagues from MIT are developing will monitor weather conditions as well as current airplane locations and probable routes.

The new mathematical model combines theories and calculations from probability, statistics, optimization modeling, economics and game theory.

Washington/New York  - The strength of tropical cyclones - especially hurricanes in the Atlantic and typhoons in the northern Indian oceans - have increased over the last 25 years as sea temperatures have risen, according to a study published in the journal Nature on Thursday.

Researchers found that an increase in water temperature by 1 degree Celsius corresponded to a nearly one-third rise in the number of strong storms worldwide, from an average of 13 to 17 per year.

Washington  - The United States will provide 1 billion dollars in humanitarian aid to Georgia following the Russian invasion of the former Soviet republic, while the International Monetary Fund offered 750 million dollars in loans on Wednesday.

"Georgia's needs are great, especially its economic needs," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday. "The free world cannot allow the destiny of a small independent country to be determined by the aggression of a larger neighbour."

Washington - Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee for president, Wednesday lashed out at Republicans for ignoring the dragging economy and its impact on ordinary people's lives in the opening session of their presidential nominating session.

Obama, referring to speeches delivered Tuesday evening in St Paul, Minnesota, charged that none of the speakers mentioned the economic hardships and the struggles people are having in sending their children to college or hanging on to pensions.