NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The decline in mortality seen in the U.S. population over the past four decades has not extended to patients with rheumatoid arthritis, despite innovations in rheumatoid arthritis treatment, according to a report in the current issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.

Rheumatoid arthritis is known to be associated with excess mortality, the authors explain, but whether survival in rheumatoid arthritis patients has improved over time has been unclear.

Dr. Sherine E. Gabriel and colleagues from the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota evaluated trends in mortality in a population-based group of patients in whom rheumatoid arthritis was first diagnosed between 1955 and 2000 and who were followed until 2007. They compared these data with the expected mortality in the general population of individuals of the same age and sex.

Overall mortality among rheumatoid arthritis patients was 35 percent higher than that of the general population, the authors report, and excess mortality was even more evident among female rheumatoid arthritis patients (49 percent higher mortality) than among male rheumatoid arthritis patients (12 percent).

Throughout the five time periods examined, the mortality remained relatively constant for both female rheumatoid arthritis patients (2.4 per 100 people per year) and male patients (2.5 per 100 people per year).

In contrast, over the same period, the mortality in the general population declined from 1.0 deaths per 100 women and 1.2 per 100 men in 1965, to 0.2 deaths per 100 women and 0.3 per 100 men in 2000.

"Our findings indicate that rheumatoid arthritis patients have not experienced the same improvements in survival as the general population, and therefore the mortality gap between rheumatoid arthritis patients and individuals without rheumatoid arthritis has widened," the authors maintain.

"Although the reasons for the widening mortality gap are unclear, cardiovascular deaths constitute at least half of the deaths in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and it is possible that the cardiovascular interventions that improved life expectancy in the general population may not have had the same beneficial effects in patients with rheumatoid arthritis," the researchers speculate.

There is an "urgent need" to fully understand the reasons for and implications of this trend so that appropriate strategies can be taken to close "the widening mortality gap that increasingly separates rheumatoid arthritis patients from the rest of the general population," Gabriel and colleagues conclude.

SOURCE: Arthritis & Rheumatism, November 2007.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA's problems with the International Space Station's solar power wings multiplied on Tuesday after one panel ripped, threatening the structural integrity of the orbital outpost.

The 2.5-foot (75-cm) tear reduced the wings' energy output by just a fraction but until NASA can anchor the panels, managers will not proceed with plans to launch Europe's long-delayed Columbus laboratory on December 6, space station program manager Mike Suffredini said.

The problem surfaced at the end of an otherwise successful spacewalk by two shuttle Discovery astronauts to move a pair of the station's solar wing panels to the outermost end of the station's frame.

To help stabilize the station, NASA locked the wings in place to prevent them from automatically tracking the sun for energy.

"I don't want to do any more damage to the array than what's already been done," Suffredini told reporters.

Managers previously deactivated automated operation of a second wing rotator after astronauts discovered metal shavings inside the joint.

Engineers were assessing which side of the station's troubled power system to attack first. NASA already canceled plans for a spacewalk to test a shuttle heat shield repair technique so astronauts could instead inspect the joint where metal shavings were found on Sunday.

That work might now be postponed in favor of fixing the tear in one of the left-side solar panels.

"It's not a situation where anybody is particularly panicked," said Suffredini, adding that the fix might not be pretty.

"All we need is power. It doesn't have to look good," he said.

SCHEDULE SQUEEZE

Video relayed from television cameras on the space station and shuttle Discovery showed a flap of the golden wing folded up and the panel's lower frame buckling.

Station commander Peggy Whitson said the damage likely occurred as the folded-up blanket was being pulled out of its storage box.

"We didn't abort because we didn't see the tear," Whitson radioed to ground controllers, explaining that the view was obstructed by sun glint and the station's robot arm.

"Hey, no worries Peggy," replied astronaut Kevin Ford from Mission Control in Houston. "We had good video, too, and we were keeping our eye on it, so that's just the way it goes."

NASA already faced a tight deadline to launch shuttle Atlantis between December 6 and 13 when sun angles were acceptable for the shuttle to berth at the orbital outpost. When managers decided to inspect the solar array joint during Thursday's spacewalk they added a day to what previously had been a 10-day visit at the station.

That left NASA only five days in December for launching Columbus. And since station crew members must complete a lengthy list of tasks after Discovery leaves but before the next ship arrives, the new problem squeezes the schedule for Columbus' flight even more.

"I wouldn't want to do anything, relative to (Columbus' launch) until we sort this out further," Suffredini said.

NASA is trying to finish the space station, which is a project of 15 nations, by 2010 when the space shuttle fleet is scheduled for retirement.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The AIDS virus invaded the United States in about 1969 from Haiti, carried most likely by a single infected immigrant who set the stage for it to sweep the world in a tragic epidemic, scientists said on Monday.

Michael Worobey, a University of Arizona evolutionary biologist, said the 1969 U.S. entry date is earlier than some experts had believed.

The timeline laid out in the study led by Worobey indicates that HIV infections were occurring in the United States for roughly 12 years before AIDS was first recognized by scientists as a disease in 1981. Many people had died by that point.

"It is somehow chilling to know it was probably circulating for so long under our noses," Worobey said in a telephone interview.

The researchers conducted a genetic analysis of stored blood samples from early AIDS patients to determine when the human immunodeficiency virus first entered the United States.

They found that HIV was brought to Haiti by an infected person from central Africa in about 1966, which matches earlier estimates, and then came to the United States in about 1969.

The researchers think an unknown single infected Haitian immigrant arrived in a large city like Miami or New York, and the virus circulated for years -- first in the U.S. population and then to other nations.

It can take several years after infection for a person to develop AIDS, a disease that ravages the immune system.

DISEASE MULTIPLIES

"That one infection would have become two, and then it doubles again and the two becomes four," Worobey said. "So you have a period -- probably a fair number of years -- where you're dealing with probably fewer than a hundred people who are infected.

"And then, as with epidemic expansion, at some point the hundred becomes 200, you start getting into thousands, tens of thousands. And then quite rapidly you can be up into the hundreds of thousands of infections that were probably already there before AIDS was recognized in the early 1980s."

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The path the virus traveled as it jumped from nation to nation has long been debated by scientists.

The University of Miami's Dr. Arthur Pitchenik, a co-author of the study, had seen Haitian immigrants in Miami as early as 1979 with a mystery illness that turned out to be AIDS. He knew the government long had stored some of their blood samples.

The researchers analyzed samples from five of these Haitian immigrants dating from 1982 and 1983. They also looked at genetic data from 117 more early AIDS patients from around the world.

This genetic analysis allowed the scientists to calibrate the molecular clock of the strain of HIV that has spread most widely, and calculated when it arrived first in Haiti from Africa and then in the United States.

The researchers virtually ruled out the possibility that HIV had come directly to the United States from Africa, setting a 99.8 percent probability that Haiti was the steppingstone.

"I think that it gives us more clear insight into the history of it (the AIDS epidemic) and what path the virus took -- and hard objective evidence, not just armchair thinking," Pitchenik said in a telephone interview.

Studies suggest the virus first entered the human population in about 1930 in central Africa, probably when people slaughtered infected chimpanzees for meat. AIDS has killed more than 25 million people and about 40 million others are infected with HIV.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A boy playing with matches has confessed to starting a wildfire that destroyed 63 structures near Los Angeles, officials said on Tuesday.

The unidentified youngster, believed to be a preteen, was questioned by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department investigators on October 22, a day after the Buckweed fire started rampaging across 38,000 acres in the Santa Clarita area, 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

The boy "admitted that he had been playing with matches," said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.

It was initially believed that downed power lines had started the fire.

The boy was sent home after confessing, and the District Attorney's office will consider whether to press charges.

The Buckweed fire was one of about two-dozen conflagrations that ravaged southern California last week, destroying 2,300 buildings, according to the California Office of Emergency Services. The fires have been responsible for 12 deaths and 78 injuries.

Arson is being blamed for a blaze that has destroyed 15 homes in Orange County, south of Los Angeles, and a reward of $250,000 has been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever started the fire.

SIRNAK, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkish Cobra helicopters pounded Kurdish rebel positions near the Iraqi border on Tuesday and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan reaffirmed his readiness to send troops over the frontier despite U.S. opposition.

Plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the mountains in Sirnak province after the helicopters flew over rebel positions, witnesses said. A further round of bombing occurred later in the afternoon.

A convoy of up to 40 army vehicles headed east towards the border in brilliant sunshine. Troops scoured the hillsides for landmines, a favored weapon of the guerrillas.

Three Turkish soldiers have been killed in the past 24 hours in the border area. A fourth died on Monday in Tunceli province hundreds of kilometers to the north in a landmine explosion.

Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, artillery, warplanes and combat helicopters along the Iraqi border in preparation for a possible cross-border incursion into northern Iraq where 3,000 rebels are believed to be hiding.

"Turkey has to take military action against terrorism. Our security forces are continuing their operations without interruption," Erdogan told members of his ruling centre-right AK Party in parliament in Ankara.

"We are at the stage of making a decision and we will make the decision on our own ... We are employing all our resources to get results in the shortest time," he said.

The United States and Iraq have urged Turkey to avoid a major military incursion, fearing this would destabilize the wider region. Washington and Baghdad have shown no appetite for tackling the PKK in Iraq despite repeated appeals from Ankara.

U.S.-TURKISH EFFORTS

The White House said President George W. Bush will discuss "joint efforts to counter the PKK" when he meets Erdogan in Washington next week.

"We have a joint desire, a joint need to make sure that the PKK is eradicated, that they are stopped," spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Erdogan said he would tell Bush Turkey expected "urgent, concrete steps" from the United States against the PKK. He would also seek an explanation of why PKK rebels are using U.S.-made weapons in their fight with Turkish forces.

Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani told Tuesday's Milliyet newspaper he wanted the PKK to lay down its weapons but he also criticized Turkey for refusing to discuss the issue directly with his autonomous Kurdish administration in northern Iraq.

"Barzani's attitude is clear. He is sheltering a terrorist organization in that region. That is what is happening and that is against international law," Erdogan later told reporters at a reception at the presidential palace in Ankara.

President Abdullah Gul added: "Barzani has to choose one side."

Ankara insists on speaking only with the central government in Baghdad and suspects Barzani of planning an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq. It fears this could stoke separatism among Turkey's own large Kurdish population.

"We are not Turkey's enemy. We extend the hand of friendship but we cannot accept persecution," Barzani told a news conference in his capital Arbil, broadcast live on Turkish TV.

"It is our natural right to defend ourselves," he added in comments dubbed into Turkish, reiterating previous statements that Iraqi Kurdish fighters would fight if Turkey invaded.

Turkey's cabinet is due to approve economic sanctions on Wednesday against groups deemed to be providing support to the PKK, a move widely viewed as targeting Barzani's administration.

The measures could include restricting border traffic and reducing electricity exports to northern Iraq.

Turkey's civil aviation authority has denied Istanbul-based charter airline Tarhan Tower permission to fly two of its three weekly flights to Arbil this week, airline officials told Reuters on Tuesday, in an apparent sign of new restrictions.

Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. The United States and the European Union, like Turkey, brand the PKK as a terrorist group.

U.S., Turkish and Iraqi officials will make fresh diplomatic efforts to avert a major military operation when they attend a conference of Iraq's neighbors in Istanbul this weekend.

(Additional reporting by Paul de Bendern and Evren Mesci in Ankara and Tabassum Zakaria and Matt Spetalnick in Washington)

NEW YORK, Oct 26 (OneWorld) - Preparation for nationwide protests against the Bush administration's war plans against Iran and the continued occupation of Iraq are in full swing.

Antiwar groups will hold rallies and demonstrations Saturday in 11 major cities across the United States to build pressure on Congress to take decisive measures against the Bush administration's military-led policies.

"Every month, nearly 100 service-people and countless more Iraqis are killed, some 12 billion of our tax dollars are spent, and the death and destruction continue," said Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK, an anti-war group that has organized several demonstrations since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

"People everywhere want the war to end, but Washington has failed to take decisive action," Benjamin added in a statement. "We want this war to end. Our goal for the 11 regional peace demonstrations is to focus national attention on the urgency of ending the war and to highlight the impact of war spending on domestic needs."

The October 27 antiwar protests will take place in Boston; Chicago; Jonesborough, Tennessee; Los Angeles; New Orleans; New York; Orlando; Salt Lake City; San Francisco; and Seattle.

Organizers said they expect that people in all the 11 cities will participate in the rallies in large numbers because working and middle-class Americans are suffering from economic hardship due to the massive spending of tax dollars on military operations abroad.

The protests come at a time when the Bush administration is seeking Congressional approval for additional spending on military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Bush has asked for $196.4 billion for war-related operations this budget year.

On Thursday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could cost more than $2 trillion through the next decade. According to the CBO, the United States has already spent about $604 billion on the wars, just $39 billion of which has been dedicated to diplomatic operations and foreign aid.

The administration has dismissed that analysis by saying it was based on "speculation."

"It's just a ton of speculation," said White House press secretary Dana Perino. "We don't know how much the war is going to cost in the future."

Democratic politicians pointed out the vast difference between today's estimates and those the White House offered before the war began in 2003.

"That estimate is a far cry from the administration's original claim of a $50 billion price that the Iraqis could pay themselves," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "The depth of this tragedy is stunning, particularly for our military families -- and for prospects for peace in the region."

However, despite their opposition to the war, Democrats have not given any clear indication that they would take a firm stand against Bush's request for additional money for war.

Analysts say the proposed additional spending on military operations indicates that the plans to carry out an attack on Iran cannot be ruled out. On Thursday, the Bush administration declared its readiness to roll out an unprecedented package of unilateral sanctions against Tehran.

Independent foreign experts have repeatedly warned about the consequences of such measures, arguing that it would fuel anti-Americanism throughout the Muslim world, and place at further risk the lives of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We can't bomb a country simply because we don't like it," said Carah Ong, an analyst at the Washington, DC-based Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, a policy think tank. "Doing so would be recklessly shortsighted and only strengthen the hands of hard-liners in Iran.

Last week, Bush suggested that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to "World War III." Vice President Dick Cheney also used threatening language against Tehran saying that Iran would face "serious consequences" if the government there does not abandon its nuclear program.

Iran has repeatedly said it has no intention to build nuclear weapons and that its atomic program is meant for peaceful purposes, which is its right under the UN treaty on nuclear nonproliferation (NPT).

The Center and many other organizations are currently trying to build pressure on Congress to prevent a military attack against Iran and opt for a diplomatic solution. The group has also started a signature campaign to send a petition to Congress demanding as much.

"If we want to see a change in Iran's behavior," said Ong, "we must pursue courageous diplomatic leadership to establish a serious, sustained dialogue."

BOSTON (Reuters) - The Boston Red Sox hammered the Cleveland Indians 12-2 on Saturday to force a seventh and deciding game in the American League Championship Series.

Five RBIs by J.D. Drew and Curt Schilling's pitching fired the Red Sox, who will seek to complete the comeback from 3-1 down when they send Game 3 losing pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka to the mound on Sunday against Jake Westbrook, who won the third game.

The winners face the Colorado Rockies in the World Series, beginning on Wednesday in either Boston or New York.

"There's nothing more (fun) in sports than a Game 7," Schilling told reporters after improving his post-season record to 10-2.

The Red Sox have won the last two games by a combined score of 19-3.

"It's still two games and you see a lot in a seven-game series," said Cleveland manager Eric Wedge. "It's going to come down to Game 7 between the two teams that won more games than anybody in the regular season, two teams that have beat each up on each other a little bit over the past week, and that's the way it should be.

"It's something everybody should look forward to."

Drew hit a grand slam in the first inning and added an RBI single in a six-run third that knocked Cleveland starter Fausto Carmona from the game. The right fielder has struggled in his first season in Boston after signing a $70 million contract but was called out for a curtain call after the home run.

Schilling delivered seven strong innings, allowing two runs on six hits, walking none and striking out five. He received a huge ovation from the crowd as he walked off after the seventh inning, doffing his cap before entering the dugout.

"(He) really really pitched like the guy that we need," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona.

It was the fifth time in his career that Schilling pitched a post-season game with his team facing elimination and he has won all five starts, for Philadelphia, Arizona and Boston.

The Red Sox are seeking to win their second World Series in the last four years. The Indians have not won it since 1948.

POP FLY

The Red Sox loaded the bases with no one out in the first inning on two infield hits and a walk to David Ortiz. Carmona then struck out Manny Ramirez and got Mike Lowell on a pop fly to short right but Drew connected on a 3-1 pitch, hitting a vicious line drive to left-centerfield.

"I didn't want to walk off the field without any runs, so I was trying to hit the ball hard," Drew said. "It worked out great."

Victor Martinez led off the second inning with a solo home run for Cleveland, after Grady Sizemore had started with a similar fly ball that was called a foul.

The Red Sox broke things open with the six-run third inning that included a pair of Cleveland errors and chased Carmona from the game.

Drew singled home one run and Julio Lugo had a two-run double in the big Boston third.

NEW YORK, Oct 16 (OneWorld) - Apple's iPhone contains hazardous chemicals that can endanger human health and the environment, say scientists associated with the environmental organization Greenpeace International who tested the device in their laboratories a few months ago.

Greenpeace scientists claimed this week that they found two types of hazardous substances in the iPhone that have already been eliminated by other mobile phone makers.

"Two of the phthalate plasticisers found at high levels in the headphone cable are toxic to reproduction," said Dr. David Santillo, senior scientist at the Greenpeace Research Laboratories.

Santillo and many other scientists assert that these substances interfere with sexual development in mammals, and therefore their use in products such as toys or other childcare articles have been banned in Europe.

However, though questionable, their use in mobile phones is still legal.

Greenpeace campaigners say they decided to test the iPhone in their UK laboratory in June after Apple management publicly declared that it would address environmental concerns as it launched new products.

In May when the iPhone was launched, thousands of consumers took part in Greenpeace's "Green My Apple" campaign after Apple's Steve Jobs bragged about the fine environmental quality of his company's products.

In introducing the iPhone, he said: "Apple is ahead of, or will soon be ahead of, most of its competitors" on environmental issues.

"We watched closely when the iPhone was launched in June for any mention of the green features of the phone from Apple," said a Greenpeace official. "There was none."

The laboratory tests show the iPhone contains toxic brominated compounds (indicating the presence of brominated flame retardants -- so-called BFRs) and hazardous PVC plastics. The findings are detailed in the Greenpeace report entitled "Missed call: the iPhone's Hazardous Chemicals."

Researchers at the laboratory say they have tested 18 internal and external components of the iPhone and confirmed the presence of brominated compounds in half the samples, including in the phone's antenna.

A mixture of toxic phthalates was found to make up 1.5 percent of the plastic (PVC) coating of the headphone cables, according to Zeina Alhajj, a Greenpeace campaigner .

"Steve Jobs has missed the call on making the iPhone his first step towards greening Apple's products," said Alhajj. "It seems that Apple is far from leading the way for a green electronics industry as competitors, like Nokia, already sell mobile phones free of PVC."

Apple's media relations officials did not return calls for their comments on the Greenpeace study Monday, though an Apple spokesperson did tell the trade publication Macworld that the company "will voluntarily eliminate the use of PVC and BFRs by the end of 2008."

The California-based non-profit Center for Environmental Health is hoping to speed up that process. The group announced its intention Monday to bring a lawsuit against Apple, through which it aims to reach a negotiated settlement to reduce the use of the chemicals in question.

Greenpeace researchers said during the tests they also found the iPhone's battery was "unusually glued and soldered" into the handset, which hinders battery replacement and makes separation for recycling or appropriate disposal more difficult, and therefore adds to the burden of electronic waste.

Several of Apple's competitors have said they have identified extra toxic chemicals they intend to remove in the future -- beyond current minimum legal requirements.

Nokia mobile phones are totally PVC free, while Motorola and Sony Ericsson have already put products on the market with BFR-free components. Nokia and Sony Ericsson have a global take-back policy for their phones and accept responsibility for reuse and recycling of phones they manufacture.

Environmentalists say that saves resources and helps prevent old phones from adding to the mountain of e-waste that has been dumped in Asia and elsewhere.

Apple does not have a global free take-back policy so the eventual fate of the 4 to 10 million iPhones likely to be sold in the product's first year is uncertain, analysts say.

"With next month's European launch of the iPhone, Apple should sell a version which is at least as green as the offerings from Sony Ericsson, Nokia, and Motorola," said Greenpeace's Alhajj.

"Only then can loyal fans of Steve Jobs believe that his promises of a greener Apple will bear any fruit. Right now Steve appears to have any green product news 'on hold'."

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KARACHI (Reuters) - Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ended eight years of self-exile on Thursday, returning to Karachi where hundreds of thousands of supporters thronged the streets to welcome her home.

"I am thankful to God, I am very happy that I'm back in my country and I was dreaming of this day," a tearful Bhutto told Reuters as she disembarked an Emirates flight from Dubai and kissed a Koran once she stepped on Pakistani soil.

Bhutto returned to lead her Pakistan People's Party into national elections meant to return the country to civilian rule.

For years Bhutto had vowed to return to Pakistan to end military dictatorship, yet she is coming back as a potential ally for President Pervez Musharraf, the army chief who took power in a 1999 coup.

Before saying goodbye to her two daughters and husband, Asif Ali Zardari, in Dubai, Bhutto described Pakistan as being at a crossroads between democracy and dictatorship.

Musharraf is going through his weakest period, and there is strong speculation he will end up sharing power with Bhutto after national elections due in early January.

The United States is believed to have quietly encouraged their alliance in order to keep nuclear-armed Pakistan pro-Western and committed to fighting al Qaeda and supporting NATO's efforts to stabilize Afghanistan.

Dressed in a green shalwar kameez (loose tunic and trousers), her head covered by a white scarf, Bhutto stood in plain view atop a truck designed to withstand a blast as it edged through a mass of people outside the airport, ignoring police advice to keep behind its bullet proof glass.

"Now that the people have given their verdict, it is necessary that the elections should be free and fair," she said before setting off at the head of a procession into Karachi.

After three hours her truck had gone half kilometer to reach the airport gate, so great was the crowd, and as dusk fell the main road into the downtown area was completely clogged.

Some 20,000 security personnel have been deployed to provide protection against threatened suicide bomb attacks by militants.

Intelligence reports suggested at least three jihadi groups linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban were plotting suicide attacks, according to a provincial official.

"She has an agreement with America. We will carry out attacks on Benazir Bhutto as we did on General Pervez Musharraf," Haji Omar, a Taliban commander in the Waziristan tribal region on the Afghan border, told Reuters by satellite telephone.

While the rest of Pakistan was transfixed by Bhutto's homecoming, Musharraf spent most of the day at his army office in Rawalpindi, with no official engagements scheduled, an aide said.

Bhutto's return pleased investors in the Karachi Stock Exchange, whose main index has risen 47 percent this year.

"There is a feeling that the political scenario will stabilize now and there will be consistent economic policies," said Muzzamil Mussani, a dealer at JS Global Capital Ltd, as the index hit a life high of 14,802.61 points, up over 1 percent.

HOMECOMING RALLY

The route to a site near the tomb of Pakistan's founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, where Bhutto was due to address a rally, was lined with die-hard loyalists.

"I sold the goats in my house to travel to Karachi and welcome Benazir Bhutto. Since the day she announced her arrival, we lit oil lamps every night, and my old mother offers long prayers for her safety and success," said Imdad Chandio, a villager from the barren hinterland of Sindh province.

Red, black and green tricolor of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party festooned streets and billboards displayed giant images of Bhutto and her late father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the country's first popularly elected prime minister, who was ousted and executed by his army chief, General Mohammed Zia-ul-Haq.

Musharraf has already granted an amnesty to protect Bhutto from corruption charges brought by the government of Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister he overthrew and later exiled.

But the Supreme Court is challenging Musharraf's right to bestow an amnesty. It is also hearing challenges to the president's right to have stood for re-election while still army chief in a ballot he won easily on October 6, even though he has promised to be sworn in as a civilian leader.

Judge Javed Iqbal expected a ruling in 10 or 12 days time.

(Additional reporting by Imtiaz Shah and Asim Tanveer)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush hosted the Dalai Lama on Tuesday despite China's warning that U.S. plans to honor the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader could damage relations between Beijing and Washington.

The White House talks were held on the eve of a congressional award ceremony for the Dalai Lama, but the Bush administration took pains to keep the encounter with the president low-key in a bid to placate China.

"We in no way want to stir the pot and make China feel that we are poking a stick in their eye -- to a country that we have ... a good relationship with on a variety of issues," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Beijing has bitterly denounced plans for the Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in India since staging a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, to receive the Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday.

Bush will attend the ceremony on Capitol Hill, the first time a U.S. president will appear in public with the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists and a Nobel Peace laureate whom China regards as a separatist and a traitor.

"We are furious," Tibet's Communist Party boss, Zhang Qingli, told reporters in China. "If the Dalai Lama can receive such an award, there must be no justice or good people in the world."

The White House denied Bush's private meeting with the Dalai Lama, his fourth since taking office, was meddling in China's internal affairs. But Perino said: "We understand that the Chinese have very strong feelings about this."

Returning to his Washington hotel, a smiling Dalai Lama told journalists and a small group of cheering followers that his meeting with Bush had been "like a reunion of one family."

"Naturally he's showing his concern about Tibet and he inquired about the situation there," the Dalai Lama said.

Asked about China's anger over his U.S. visit, he waved his hands dismissively and said: "That always happens."

PLAYING DOWN THE SYMBOLISM

Trying to play down the symbolism of the talks, Bush met the Dalai Lama in the White House residence instead of the Oval Office where he normally welcomes visiting world leaders.

White House staff, who had refused to say when the meeting would take place, afterward said it lasted half an hour but gave no further details. Reporters were not allowed to glimpse the two together and no photographs were released.

Asked why Bush was going ahead with the talks, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said: "He made it clear in his communications with the Chinese ... that when the Dalai Lama was in town for the congressional ceremony that they would meet. So there's no reason not to."

China pulled out of a meeting this week at which world powers were to discuss Iran, in apparent protest at Congress's plan to honor the Dalai Lama with its highest civilian award.

China had also canceled an annual human rights dialogue with Germany to show displeasure over Chancellor Angela Merkel's September meeting with the Dalai Lama.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said China had expressed "resolute opposition" to the U.S. award.

"China has solemnly demanded the United States cancel the above-mentioned and extremely wrongful arrangement," Yang said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said if the decision to honor the Dalai Lama was not reversed it would have an "extremely serious impact" on bilateral relations.

China pulled out of the meeting on Iran for "technical reasons," he told a news conference.

China's rhetoric against the Dalai Lama has been increasing in line with his accolades abroad, even though the government and his envoys are engaged in a tentative dialogue process.

The Dalai Lama, 72, has said he supports a "middle way" policy that advocates autonomy for Tibet within China. But Qiangba Puncog, Tibet's governor, said China believed he still supported independence and that separatist activities in the region were increasing.

(Additional reporting by Lindsay Beck, Chris Buckley and Guo Shipeng)

MOBILE, Ala. - An 81-year-old woman shot a homeless man Monday morning after finding him washing his clothes in her laundry room, police said.

Ethel Sanders told people she heard noises in her laundry room and found a man standing in his underwear near the washing machine when she went to investigate, police spokesman Officer Eric Gallichant told the Press-Register.

Sanders was carrying a handgun and shot the man when he came at her, Gallichant said. Sanders fell to the ground and dropped the gun after firing, Gallichant said.

The man grabbed the gun, pointed it at Sanders and took his clothes from the washing machine, Gallichant said.

The man fled and Sanders called police just before 8 a.m. Officers caught the man at the nearby Plateau Community Center.

James Penn, 25, was taken to University of South Alabama Medical Center. Gallichant said he is expected to survive. Upon release from the hospital, Penn will be charged with first-degree burglary, Gallichant said.

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Information from: Press-Register, http://www.al.com/mobileregister