Atlantis to return next week, Sunita sets record

Mission managers on Saturday cleared Atlantis to land next week after concluding that the space shuttle8217;s heat shield was safe enough to withstand the intense heat of re-entering Earth8217;s atmosphere. The clearance came a day after astronaut Danny Olivas, during a spacewalk, stapled down a loose thermal blanket that covered an engine pod near the shuttle8217;s tail. The same day, two Russian cosmonauts got crucial computers running, four days after they crashed at the International Space Station. Meanwhile, Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams made history on Saturday when she set a new record for the longest uninterrupted space flight by a woman. She surpassed the 188-day, four-hour mark set by Shannon Lucid in 1996, according to US officials.

Bodies of 13 Iraqi athletes found

BAGHDAD: Police on Saturday found the bodies of 13 members of the Iraqi Tae Kwon Do team, said a police officer. The players were kidnapped a year ago while on their way to Baghdad from Amman in Jordan. The bodies were found near a highway between the town of Rutba and Ramadi in Anbar.

Philippine town mayor assassinated

MANILA: The newly-elected mayor and vice-mayor of a northern Philippine town were gunned down by unidentified gunmen as they watched a cockfight, police said on Saturday. Alfredo Vendivil Sr, mayor of San Jose, and his cousin and vice-mayor Virgilio Vendivil Sr, were shot late last night inside a cockfight arena.