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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New York, March 14 - At least four people have been killed and two others wounded by a single gunman in two shooting incidents in New York State, media reports said.

Two people were shot and killed Wednesday morning at a car wash in Herkimer village and two others were killed in a barber shop a mile away in Mohawk village, both in Herkimer County, Xinhua quoted police as saying.

The suspect was identified as 64-year-old Kurt Myers from Mohawk.

Police said he has white hair and beard, and was carrying a long gun for the attacks and driving a red Jeep Cherokee.

Police did not comment on a possible motive.

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Washington, March 13 - A nephew of former US president George W. Bush and a grandson of former president George H. W. Bush has filed paperwork to run for Texas land commissioner next year.

George P. Bush, the eldest son of former Florida governor Jeb Bush, was considered as a rising star among conservative Hispanics since his mother was born in Mexico, reported Xinhua.

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Washington, March 13 - US employers posted more job openings in January than in the previous month, indicating further improvement in the job market, the Labor Department reported.

The number of job openings rose 2.2 percent in January from December to 3.69 million. It followed a nearly 5-percent decline in the previous month, reported Xinhua.

A separate Labor Department report released last month showed that the US unemployment rate stood at 7.9 percent in January, and that the total number of unemployed Americans topped 12.3 million.

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New York, March 13 - New York celebrates flamenco's magical enchantment with an expo of some of the marks it has made on the intense cultural life of the Big Apple over the past 100 years.

"This exhibition is the biggest thing that ever happened to flamenco here - five months of telling people the history of flamenco in New York," Carlota Santana, founder of Flamenco Vivo, told EFE.

Conceived as a multimedia expo open until Aug 3, one of its gems is a rare 1934 recording by Federico Garcia Lorca and Antonia "La Argentina" Merce during a performance in New York.

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New York, March 13 - Apollo Global Management LLC and C. Dean Metropoulos & Co will acquire the famous pastries Twinkies and other brands for $410 million, bankrupt Hostess Brands Inc. announced Tuesday.

The joint offer was the only one presented in writing, and so Hostess, which announced its closure last November, decided to turn the brands over to the two companies, the firm said.

The agreement still must be approved by the bankruptcy court supervising the liquidation of Hostess's assets.

A spokesman for Apollo Global contacted by EFE declined to comment on the matter.

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Washington, March 13 - Ford Motor Co. is recalling about 6,500 new vehicles in north America to replace a rear door lock which may have a faulty child safety mechanism.

The related models are some 2013 Ford Focus, C-Max and Escape vehicles in the US and Canada because the child lock on the left rear door may have been installed incorrectly, Xinhua reported.

"The child lock may not engage when the operator uses normal turning force to activate the child lock, and the operator may incorrectly believe the child lock is engaged," Ford told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

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Washington, March 13 - With the Lashkar-e-Taeba (LeT), believed to be behind the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, remaining Pakistan's most problematic militant group, the US fears an Islamabad-linked terrorist attack against India could undo efforts to improve ties between them.

"Both India and Pakistan have made calculated decisions to improve ties, despite deep-rooted mistrust," US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in his annual report to the US Congress Tuesday on the threats facing the United States.

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Washington, March 13 - The first rock sample collected by NASA's Curiosity rover shows ancient Mars could have been home to primitive life forms, agency officials have announced.

"A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment. From what we know now, the answer is yes," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Programme, during a press conference Tuesday.

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Cambridge (Massachusetts), March 12 : The Ivy League Harvard College apologised as it was embroiled in a fresh controversy over how it tried to find who leaked information about a cheating scandal to the media last year.

The oldest institution of higher learning in the US, the Harvard College - one of the two schools within Harvard University giving undergraduate degrees - founded in 1636 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, issued a partial apology as it came under fire for the way it handled a secret search of the e-mail accounts of 16 resident deans.

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New York, March 12 : A New York state judge overturned Monday the city's ban on large sugary soft drinks, a big setback for the Big Apple's mayor, Michael Bloomberg.

"Arbitrary and capricious" is how state Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling described the municipal regulation, which was set to take effect Tuesday.

Bloomberg's measure, the first of its kind in the US, banned the sale of soft drinks of more than 16 ounces with a high sugar content in stores regulated by the city Board of Health.

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Washington, March 12 - Describing forging deeper partnerships with emerging powers as a key pillar of US strategy for the Asia-Pacific, a top aide of President Barack Obama says Washington not just accepts, but fervently supports India's rise.

"US and Indian interests powerfully converge in the Asia-Pacific, where India has much to give and much to gain," Obama's National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon said discussing US policy in the Asia-Pacific region at Asia Society in New York Monday.

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Washington, March 9 - The US unemployment rate fell two-tenths of a percent in February to 7.7 percent, as 236,000 net jobs were created, the Labor Department said Friday.

Economists had been expecting the creation of just 157,000 net jobs and forecast that the jobless rate would remain unchanged at 7.9 percent.

The February jobless figure was the lowest since President Barack Obama took office in 2009 amid a severe economic crisis, while net job creation last month was the highest since last November.

The private sector led the way by creating 246,000 jobs, more than offsetting the loss of 10,000 jobs in the public sector.

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New York, March 9 - An Indian-American pioneer in online tutoring believes that with its best talent and technology India can create educational material for the rest of the world, raising standards and creating jobs.

Harry Aurora, CEO of iTutor Inc, will present his ideas on the future of online education at a panel discussion Sunday on 'Developing India's Silicon Valley' at the Harvard India Conference presented by the Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School in Boston.

Prof. Sunil Gupta, Professor of Business Administration and Head of the Marketing Department, Harvard Business School will moderate the panel discussion at the March 9-10 conference on the theme of 'India vs India:

Local Strength or Global Growth'.

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Washington, March 9 - President Barack Obama has initiated a global round of trade talks encompassing Europe and potentially much of Asia, but with a potential to influence major economies, notably China, India and Brazil, according to a media report.

"If the effort pays off, it could boost some of America's most competitive and important companies," the Washington Post reported. "Finance and consulting firms would be able to move more deeply into Europe, Japan and some developing countries."

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Washington, March 9 - Nirbhaya, the "Fearless" victim of a gang rape in a Delhi bus, who became the focus of women around India and their fight against gender-based violence, was honoured Friday with a posthumous US "woman of courage" award.

US first lady Michelle Obama joined secretary of state John Kerry as he presented nine women the annual award recognizing women around the globe who have shown exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for women's rights and empowerment, often at great personal risk.

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Washington, March 9 - US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel arrived in Afghanistan Friday on his first overseas trip as the Pentagon chief, the defense department announced.

Hagel is to thank the US troops deployed in the Asian country and to see for himself "where we are in Afghanistan", reported Xinhua citing the American Forces Press Service, the Pentagon's information wing,

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Washington, March 9 - Nirbhaya, the "Fearless" victim of a gang rape in a Delhi bus, who became the focus of women around India and their fight against gender-based violence, was honoured Friday with a posthumous US "woman of courage" award.

US first lady Michelle Obama joined secretary of state John Kerry as he presented nine women the annual award recognising women around the globe who have shown exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for women's rights and empowerment, often at great personal risk.

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Washington, March 8 : Using the Pan-STARRS telescope on Haleakala, astronomers have found a young-looking supernova on the outskirts of a bright elliptical galaxy.

Supernova PS1-12sk is rare in more ways than one.

"This supernova is one-of-a-kind. And it's definitely in the wrong neighborhood," said Nathan Sanders of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), lead author of the discovery paper.

Based on the presence of helium and other features, PS1-12sk is classified as a very rare Type Ibn supernova -- only the sixth such example found out of thousands of supernovae.

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