Washington, March 27 : The US Supreme Court began a historic hearing on whether marriage is only between a man and a woman or whether gay and lesbian couples too could tie the knot, with little indication of the outcome.

With nine justices offering disparate views during Tuesday's hearing on a challenge to California's Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage, the verdict could go any which way. It could extend a constitutional right for gays and lesbians to wed in all 50 states, ban it all over the country or confine its ruling only to the narrow question of sState law, analysts said.

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Houston, March 27 - A university in the US state of Texas has evacuated its campus following an anonymous bomb threat.

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) closed its campus Tuesday after officials received word of the threat, reports Xinhua.

The campus reopened Wednesday after campus police searched all buildings, the school said in a statement.(IANS)

Washington, March 27 - Saying that strengthening Indo-US trade ties makes abundant economic sense, a US expert says the US can help India's growth by incentivising New Delhi to open up its economy.

"Within a generation, India will likely become one of the United States' most vital diplomatic partners," said Daniel Twining, senior fellow for Asia at the German Marshall Fund of the United States in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal.

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Washington, March 27 - Google Glass, the US techology giant's revolutionary wearable computer is still months away from release, but there is a growing movement across America seeking to limit and in some cases ban the use of the glasses due to both privacy and safety concerns.

"We heard of many crashes caused by texting and driving, most involving our youngest drivers," Republican Gary Howell of the West Virginia state legislature told tech website CNET.

Howell has introduced a bill that would effectively ban the use of Google Glass by drivers behind the wheel of a vehicle, siting safety concerns.

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Washington, March 27 - India and Pakistan will both benefit if they work together to peacefully share and conserve the vitally important waters of the Indus River Basin, according to a new report.

The study by researchers from Stimson Centre, a US-based think tank, the Observer Research Foundation in India and Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Pakistan, was produced by water experts from groups that formed the Indus Basin Working Group.

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Washington, March 27 - The World Bank has welcomed the move by the BRICS countries to set up a development bank and vowed to work closely with the new lender.

Finance ministers from the BRICS members (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) agreed Tuesday to establish the bank to fund infrastructure in the five emerging economies, Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said in South Africa.

"Establishing a development bank is a significant undertaking," the World Bank said in a statement.

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Washington, March 27 - A US Congressional and business delegation, visiting India this week, will feature a meeting with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Modi has been denied a US visa for his alleged role in the 2002 Gujarat riots, but of late US businesses have warmed up to him.

Aaron Schock, a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Illinois who will lead the delegation, is scheduled to travel to Ahmedabad to meet Modi on Thursday, according to an e-mail from the lawmaker's office.

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New York, March 26 - An earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale jolted Guatemala, the US Geological Survey said.

The epicentre of the Monday quake, with a depth of 200.50 km, was initially determined to be at 14.5994 degrees north latitude and 90.4279 degrees west longitude, Xinhua reported. (IANS)

Washington, March 26 - US auto major Ford and its ad agency WPP have apologized for offensive artwork depicting women tied up in the back of a Ford Figo, a car made in India.

Manufactured by Ford India in Chennai, Figo is based on the Mark V European Ford Fiesta hatchback. It has been in the export market since March 2010. A new model of the car was released in South Africa in January 2013.

The cartoonish drawings were never part of a paid campaign but were part of "a creative exercise by a team that was submitting for an ad competition," according to Chris Preuss, Ford spokesman for WPP, as cited by CNN Money.

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Washington, March 26 : US authorities including the Federal Bureau of investigation (FBI) have expanded their search for Sunil Tripathi, an Indian-American student of Brown University, who went missing ten days ago.

Police assisted by the FBI are scouring Providence, Rhode Island, and nearby cities for any sign of the missing 22-year-old man, but appear to be no closer to knowing where he is. Police have have no solid leads so far, CNN reported citing detective Mark Sacco.

Outside of Providence, the search has been extended to Boston, Connecticut, New York, and Philadelphia.

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Washington, March 26 - US President Barack Obama is pushing Congress to move fast on immigration reform to fix the problem of over 11 million illegal immigrants, including some 250,000 Indians, that he can sign into law next month.

"We are making progress but we've got to finish the job," he said during a naturalisation ceremony for 28 immigrants from 26 countries, including one from India, at the White House.

"Everyone pretty much knows what's broken. Everybody knows how to fix it," Obama said. "We've all proposed solutions and we've got a lot of white papers and studies.

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Washington, March 26: The US has been assisting Turkey and Arab nations boost their arms deliveries to Syrian rebels in recent months as the armed opposition attempts to unseat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the New York Times reported.

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has helped Arab governments -- including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan -- in their efforts to procure weapons to arm the Syrian rebels with, and US intelligence officers have also assisted in vetting the insurgents designated to receive the shipments, the newspaper reported.

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Ramallah, March 24 - US Secretary of State John Kerry has met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan, a media report said.

The meeting was part of America's renewed efforts to revive direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, Xinhua reported.

The meeting took place Saturday in Jordan's capital city Amman, where Abbas stopped on his way to Qatar, a Palestinian source said.

Kerry was in Amman with US President Barack Obama, who visited Israel and the Palestinian territories earlier this week.

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Washington, March 24 - The return of the US Dragon space freighter from the International Space Station (ISS) to Earth has been postponed by a day due to poor weather conditions, NASA said.

"More than three weeks after arriving at the station, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is ready for the trip back to Earth, now scheduled for Tuesday, March 26," NASA said.

"Dragon's return date, originally scheduled for March 25, was postponed due to inclement weather developing near its targeted splashdown site in the Pacific Ocean," it said.

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Washington, March 23 - One of America's top priorities in building a partnership with India is to expand state- and local-level engagement, according to a senior US official as Indian companies are adding tremendous value to local US economies.

The booming India-US trade relationship already is delivering substantial benefits to the American people, said Robert Blake, assistant secretary of state for South Asia in an address at the University of California, Berkeley Institute of International Studies, Thursday.

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Washington, March 23 - India and the US have agreed to expand their cooperation in civil space activities ranging from weather and monsoon forecasting to cooperative space exploration work, including future missions to the moon and Mars.

The agreement between the two countries' space agencies, Indian Space Research Organisation and National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) was announced Friday after a meeting of the US-India Civil Space Joint Working Group (CSJWG).

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Washington, March 22 : The US wants to increase commercial space cooperation with India to create opportunities for US and Indian companies as their "very capable space science communities" have much to offer each other.

"India's first Indian Mars Orbiter Mission, slated for October 2013, is an exciting opportunity for US-India collaboration," Geoffrey Pyatt, principal deputy assistant secretary for South Asia said opening a meeting of the US-India Civil Space Joint Working Group.

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Washington, March 22 : US fixed mortgage rates edged down this week and continued to support the housing recovery, according to the Primary Mortgage Market Survey released by Freddie Mac.

The mortgage giant said the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) fell to 3.54 percent in the week ended March 21, down from a six-month high of 3.63 percent in the previous week, and the 15-year FRM, a popular choice for those looking to refinance, edged down to 2.72 percent from 2.79 percent, reported Xinhua.

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New York, March 22 - US Vice President Joe Biden Thursday demanded "courage" from Congress in approving gun control measures that would include a ban on assault rifles.

He spoke at New York City Hall at a joint press conference with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and relatives of the victims of the Dec 14 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

"It's time for the political establishment to show the courage your daughter showed," Biden said to the family of Sandy Hook teacher Lauren Rousseau, who died trying to protect her students from shooter Adam Lanza.

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Washington, March 22 - Some 10 million Indians say they would like to leave their country and move to the US permanently -- the No. 1 desired destination for potential migrants around the world, according to a new poll.

They are among 138 million people, making up about 13 percent of the world's adults -- or about 630 million people - who want to make the US their new home, according to the Gallup survey of over half a million adults in 154 countries between 2010 and 2012.

The Britain (42 million), Canada (37 million), and France (10 million) also rank among the top choices for potential migrants.

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