Astronauts have run into trouble while setting up the International Space Station's newest room.

A cover that is supposed to go between Tranquillity and its observation deck does not fit.

Metal bars are not locking down properly because of interference from a handrail or some other metal piece on the hatch.

Flight director Bob Dempsey said yesterday engineers were now trying to figure out what to do next. The cover is needed to protect the seals and docking mechanisms on Tranquillity from the cold.

Love-struck farmer says it with manure

A US farmer made a half-mile wide heart out of manure as a Valentine's Day gift to his wife of 37 years.

The southern Minnesota man produced his opus in their farm field about 12 miles southwest of Albert Lea.

Bruce Andersland told the Alberta Lea Tribune that he started the project with his tractor and manure spreader last Wednesday and finished on Thursday. His wife, Beth, said it was the biggest and most original Valentine she ever received.

She said some people might think it's gross, but it's cute and "Why not do something fun with what you got?"

Palin maintenance request for child

Levi Johnston, the father of former Governor Sarah Palin's grandchild, is asking a judge to grant flexibility in the child support he must pay to Ms Palin's daughter.

The Anchorage Daily News reported that Johnston, 19, contends he earned more than $100,000 in 2009 because of his national celebrity. But he said in court documents that there's no guarantee that fame, or that amount of income, will continue.

Bristol Palin, the 19-year-old daughter of the former Republican vice presidential candidate, is seeking $22,750 - €1,750 a month - from her ex-fiancé to cover the 13 months since the birth of their son, Tripp, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

Missile test

The US Air Force said a high-powered laser destroyed a missile in flight during a test of a national defence system off the California coast. The successful test is a boost to a programme that had billions in cost overruns and saw its budget sharply cut by the Pentagon last year.

The Air Force and Boeing Co announced that an airborne laser system tracked a target missile as it accelerated over the ocean off the Point Mugu Naval Warfare Centre on Thursday night. The Air Force said an energy beam heated the missile until it broke up.

Candidate's Nazi jibe

A Republican candidate for a US Senate seat in Arkansas said he sees no need to apologise for comparing stem cell research to Nazi experiments on Jews during the Holocaust.

Curtis Coleman told nationally syndicated radio host Thom Hartmann he stood by his statement that embryonic stem cell research was similar to "what the Nazis did to the Jews".

Porn murder conviction

US Jurors convicted a Mexican immigrant accused of killing a Kansas college student who led a secret life as an internet porn model.

The jury found 26-year-old Israel Mireles guilty of capital murder and rape over the death of Emily Sander. The disappearance of the 18-year-old Butler Community College student received national attention after it was revealed she also was known as the internet model Zoey Zane.

Rights activist freed

A Tunisian journalist and human rights activist was freed after spending four months in prison for insulting the dignity of a man he interviewed for an online video.

Lawyer Nejib Chebbi said Zouhair Makhlouf was freed.

A court in Grombalia, about 25 miles from the North African nation's capital Tunis, ordered Mr Makhlouf to pay a fine of 6,000 dinars in addition to the jail term meted out last autumn.

Jewel heist arrest

US authorities arrested a 46-year-old man who they say ended up with more than one million US dollars' worth of gems stolen in a deadly New York City jewellery store robbery.

Forty-six-year-old Edmond Alma didn't enter a plea at his arraignment on stolen property charges. Police said he hasn't been ruled out as the gunman in a brazen midday holdup last month at R.S. Durant on posh Madison Avenue.

But his lawyer said Alma didn't kill 71-year-old clerk Henry Menaham or participate in the robbery at the boutique.