Endeavour Crew Rests Before Trip Home

HOUSTON (AP) — With their fifth and final spacewalk under their belt, Endeavour’s astronauts planned to take some well-deserved time off on Sunday before starting the journey home.

Astronauts Michael Foreman and Robert Behnken sailed through their six-hour spacewalk on Saturday, attaching a 50-foot inspection pole to the international space station and completing other chores.

“You were just fabulous out there today,” astronaut Richard Linnehan told the pair as they floated back into the station about a half hour ahead of schedule. “I can’t say enough. Thanks for making everyone look good.”

Bhutanese face subtle choices in first election

By Simon Denyer

PUNAKHA, Bhutan (Reuters) – The people of Bhutan face some subtle choices in their first parliamentary elections on Monday, choices that underline the changes democracy is bringing to this traditional Himalayan kingdom.

The biggest decision of all was imposed on the mainly Buddhist Bhutanese — their fourth king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, went against the popular will by introducing democracy after a century of royal rule.

Democracy’s adversarial nature has left many people uncomfortable in a land long known as the last Himalayan Shangri-la, but some are gradually getting used to the idea of deciding for themselves.

The cost of homelessness

We’ve been counting them and governments have been scrambling to try to help them, but a recent university study has been looking at a new question about homeless people in B.C. — what each one costs taxpayers a year.

The answer is $55,000 per person, or an annual total of $644.3 million in health, corrections and social services spending for all the homeless in B.C.

But the conclusion of the 150-page report — written by five academics at Simon Fraser University, the University of B.C. and the University of Calgary — is that B.C. taxpayers could even save money if that cash was instead spent directly on supported social housing.

China accuses Dalai Lama of taking Olympics "hostage"

By Chris Buckley

BEIJING (Reuters) – China has accused the Dalai Lama of planning bloodshed in Tibet and colluding with Uighur terrorists in Xinjiang as it pushes a security and propaganda drive to stifle anti-Chinese unrest in its remote west.

Anti-government protests by Buddhist monks erupted in Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, from March 10 and five days later anti-Chinese rioting shook the city, killing a policeman and 18 innocent civilians, burnt or hacked to death, authorities have said.