Washington - European demands for the closure of the Guantanamo prison should translate into helping the United States shutter the facility by accepting some of the detainees, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday.

President Barack Obama has issued orders to close Guantanamo by January but needs European help because many of the detainees cannot be returned to their native countries out of fear they will be mistreated, Clinton said.

Washington - The space shuttle Discovery was on its way to the International Space Station on Monday as ground crews monitored a piece of space junk that could prompt a change of course.

A piece of an old satellite could require the ISS to perform an avoidance manoeuvre, forcing Discovery to slightly change course in order to arrive at the ISS on Tuesday.

Los Angeles - A Beverly Hills judge on Monday quashed a warrant for the arrest of Lindsay Lohan after the actress' attorney provided proof that the star has been compliant with her alcohol education classes, People. com reported.

"The warrant is quashed and set aside," Judge Marsha Revel said. "I've seen additional proof ... that Lohan has been compliant with (her) programme. There is no indication of dirty (drug) tests." The judge also ordered that Lohan show new proof of enrollment by April 3.

Washington  - US president Barack Obama Monday added his anger to mounting criticism of the bailed-out insurance giant American International Group Inc (AIG) over its payment of huge bonuses and vowed to block them.

The firm has revealed it intends to hand out 1 billion dollars in reward pay, including 165 million dollars already given to the very traders who sold financial instruments that helped trigger the global credit crisis.

Washington  - US President Barack Obama laid out a new effort Monday to help small businesses struck hard by a Wall Street crisis that has cut off their access to loans.

The administration's new plan is designed to jump-start lending by directly investing in frozen credit markets, boosting loan guarantees and forcing the 21 banks that have accepted emergency government funds to report monthly on their loans to US companies.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper will print its last edition on Tuesday, ending a 146-year run and continuing operations as a web-only publication, the paper said Monday.

The newspaper is currently distributed to more than 117,000 subscribers every morning, making it the nation's largest daily newspaper to shift to an entirely digital news product.

The paper lost 14 million dollars last year and owner Hearst Corporation put the paper up for sale in January, saying that it would stop printing if a buyer couldn't be found.