Washington  - Since her youth, Shirin Nariman has been going to demonstrations.

But while with 16, the Iranian woman was sent to prison because of her political activism, today, more than 20 years later, she can speak freely. Her concerns have remained the same: the overthrow of the Iranian government in favour of a secular democracy.

On Friday, she attended a small rally in front of the White House in Washington, with a few dozen others to protest the planned closure of a refugee camp in Iraq for refugees of the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.

For the Iranians in exile, it was a shock when in January Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki announced he intended to close Camp Ashraf within two months.

Washington  - US President Barack Obama's economic recovery package was set to clear its final hurdles Friday as both houses of Congress voted on a nearly
790-billion-dollar compromise bill to help pull the United States out of recession.

The House of Representatives approved the stimulus package - the largest single spending proposal in US history - by a vote of 246-183 Friday afternoon. The Senate was expected to follow suit Friday evening.

New York  - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday pledged to strengthen ties with Asia, offering North Korea normalized relations if it abandoned nuclear weapons and appealing to China for a more cooperative relationship.

During a speech at the Asia Society in New York Friday, two days before she leaves on a four-nation tour of Asia, Clinton said she would deliver a "message about America's desire for more rigorous and persistent commitment and engagement" in Asia.

Vilnius  - Lithuanian Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas confirmed Friday that the Baltic nation has received a request from the United States to take in two inmates from Guantanamo Bay detention camp run by the US military in Cuba.

Speaking at a press conference in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, Usackas said a request was received from the US on February 5.

Usackas would not reveal the nationalities of the proposed inmates apart from saying that they were not Chinese. The Chinese embassy in Vilnius had written to the Lithuanian foreign ministry requesting that any of its citizens under detention should not be accepted.

Washington  - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday she plans to attend an international donors conference in Egypt next month to help rebuild the Gaza Strip following Israeli's military assault in the tiny enclave.

During a speech at the Asia Society in New York Clinton said that she will participate in the March 2 conference, one day after meeting Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Ali Aboul Gheit in Washington.

The Karnataka government and the US-based networking technologies giant Cisco Systems has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, endorsed by Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and Cisco chief executive John Chambers, to develop Bangalore as most sustainable place in terms of public safety, transportation, buildings, energy, health care and education.