WASHINGTON - US AMBITIONS to send astronauts back to the moon as a prelude to missions to Mars have been put in doubt by budgetary constraints 40 years after man's triumphant landing on Earth's nearest neighbour.

After the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003, former president George W. Bush decided to phase out the shuttle flights by 2003 and set a more ambitious mandate for America in space.

SYDNEY - AUSTRALIA on Saturday welcomed the first elephant ever born in the country with the arrival of a 100kg male calf at a Sydney zoo, keepers said.

The calf, yet to be named, was born at the harbourside Taronga Zoo just after 3am (1700 GMT, 1am Singapore time) to a 12-year-old Asian elephant named Thong Dee, the zoo's director Guy Cooper said.

SAN FRANCISCO -- IT MIGHT take Californians a puff or two to get their heads around an apparent contradiction recently enshrined in state law.

The same marijuana smoke that doctors can recommend to ease cancer patients' suffering must soon come with a warning saying it causes the disease.