■ UNITED STATES
Astronauts finish robot
Two of the country's astronauts finished assembling the Canadian robot Dextre yesterday during a nearly seven-hour space walk outside the International Space Station, NASA said. Rick Linnehan and Robert Behnken put together the tool-handling assembly of the US$200 million robot and attached a spare-parts platform, readying Dextre to undertake delicate maintenance tasks which have up until now been handled by astronauts. Linnehan and Behnken wrapped up their walk after six hours and 54 minutes outside the ISS, and on the 43rd anniversary of the very first walk in space by a human, when a Russian cosmonaut pushed into the abyss for 12 minutes on March 18, 1965.
■ UNITED STATES
Death toll raised in mishap
Seven people were killed over the weekend when a construction crane collapsed in New York, police said on Monday, reporting the discovery of three more bodies in the rubble. Four construction workers were initially confirmed dead in Saturday's accident, which saw a 60m crane collapse and crush an entire residential building and damage several other properties. A police spokeswoman said on Monday that three more bodies had been discovered in the remains of the buildings on Manhattan's east side, but was unable to give their identities pending notification of next of kin.
■ UNITED STATES
Chihuahuas rescued
A frenzy of tiny-dog lovers has descended on an animal shelter that rescued hundreds of Chihuahuas from a filthy rural Arizona home, with some potential owners getting into shoving matches and others calling from around the globe. The nearly 800 small dogs, mostly Chihuahuas, and 36 parrots were found in a large mobile home northwest of Tucson last week. All that were old enough and to leave the shelter were adopted by Monday, authorities said. When news spread on Thursday of the dog rescue, hundreds of people packed into the Humane Society of Southern Arizona in hopes of adopting the dogs, a spokeswoman said.
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