[SPAM] Spacewalks delayed until Friday due to rip in station solar panel

The U.S. proposals are intended to ease fears that its missile defense plans threaten Russia's nuclear deterrent and include the creation of a so-called joint regional missile defense architecture to protect the United States, NATO allies in Europe and Russia.In combative comments that took the U.S. side aback during a photo session, Putin criticized Bush's pet project and threatened to pull out of a Cold War-era treaty that limits intermediate-range missiles."We see two serious problems with these proposals," Lavrov told reporters at the news conference with Rice, Gates and Serdyukov. He said the two sides still disagree about the threat to Europe and complained that the negotiations with the Poles and Czechs were continuing.The Pentagon plans to install 10 missile interceptors in Poland, linked to a missile tracking radar in the Czech Republic. The Pentagon says the system will provide some protection in Europe and beyond for long-range missiles launched from Iran, but Rus!  sia believes the system is a step toward undermining the deterrent value of its nuclear arsenal.U.S. forces have searched the affected area and are trying to track down the suspects, the military said.The attack comes a day after a security official in Iraq's Salaheddin province said that a U.S. military operation Thursday night killed 20 civilians, most of them women and children. Full storyU.S. military planners quietly have stepped up a review of alternatives in case the Turkish government restricts U.S. access to Turkish airspace or cuts off access to the air base at Incirlik, Turkey, CNN has learned.Despite U.S. pledges of cooperation and new ideas on missile defense, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were warned by President Vladimir Putin to back off on missile defense plans for the former Soviet sphere.Serdyukov agreed.The recent rise in tensions between Turkey and the United States has led the military to increase its planning f!  or alternatives, two military officials with direct knowledge of the o ngoing assessment said.All seven soldiers were serving under the Fort Hood, Texas-based 15th Sustainment Brigade as part of the 1st Cavalry Division.Meanwhile, two U.S. soldiers were killed and five others were wounded in a mortar attack launched "in the vicinity of Baghdad" on Wednesday, the U.S. military said Saturday. The deaths put the total number of U.S. military personnel killed in the Iraq war at 3,827.But he stressed: "It will take some time before we are able to make public our estimation."The U.S. military already had been considering alternatives to Turkey because of the growing dependence on that country after the cutback of U.S. forces in central Asia in recent years.The U.S. military said terrorists on Friday fired three mortar rounds into the southern Baghdad district of Dora, killing one civilian and wounding eight others -- including four children under 10 years old.Putin set the tone early on when he hosted the pair and their Russian counterparts at his co!  untry home outside Moscow and delivered a stern rebuff to U.S. plans to push ahead with establishing missile defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic.