WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. President George W. Bush Saturday said the economic stimulus passed by Congress "is having its intended effect" amid signs the economy is improving.

In his weekly radio address, Bush acknowledged that "many working families have been weathering tough economic times" but he said there have been "some recent signs that our economy is beginning to improve."

"While the housing market is continuing to experience difficulty, the decline in home sales has leveled off recently, and sales are rising in some parts of the country," he said.

The president noted recent increases in orders for some durable goods and a report this week that the economy in the second quarter grew at an annual rate of 3.3 percent.

"These welcome signs indicate that the economic stimulus package that I signed earlier this year is having its intended effect," Bush said.

He also pointed out that Labor Day is the traditional start of the U.S. election season and called on Congress to get its "work done for the American people" rather than use the coming months to "score political points."

Specifically, he called for congressional action on energy and free trade issues.

McCain makes bid for women voters with VP

WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Likely Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain may sway some women voters with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, analysts say.

Some contend that adding Palin to the ticket will help the Arizona senator's standing among female independent voters who were disappointed that Democratic presidential contender Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York was bested by eventual nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, The Washington Post said Saturday.

"It's basically the equivalent of a midnight raid behind enemy lines," Juleanne Glover, a GOP strategist with ties to the McCain campaign, told The Post. "Hillary said she made 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling. Well, McCain just shattered it."

"The early feminists worked for the rights of women to vote and our right to life," added Serrin Foster, president of the anti-abortion Feminists for Life group, to which Palin belongs. "This is one more step in a long march for women's history."

Others, however, said instead of reflexively voting for any woman, most female independents will realize that Palin's positions on abortion, gun control and other controversial subjects are further right than their own, the Post reported.

China earthquake kills 7, injures 26

PANZHIHUA CITY, China, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- A magnitude 6.1 earthquake hit southwest China Saturday, killing seven people and injuring 26, officials said.

Eleven of the injured were said to have sustained serious wounds, the state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua reported. The epicenter of the quake was 30 miles southeast of Panzhihua City in Sichuan province, with most of the deaths and injuries reported in neighboring Yunnan province.

Xinhua said all the affected counties in Sichuan and Yunnan reported damaged houses, but no casualties or damage were reported in the urban areas of Panzhihua City.

"Locals in the county rushed out into the open and cracks appeared on house walls and many windows were broken," Zheng Zhouwei, a legislator in Yongren, told the news agency. It said the capitals of the two provinces, Chengdu and Kunming, felt the tremor, prompting many residents to set up camps outdoors.

Burying girls alive draws Pakistan rebukes

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Pakistani lawmakers say they are outraged by reports of girls and women being buried alive in rural Balochistan for wanting to marry of their own will.

The issue arose as newspaper reports surfaced claiming five females, including three teenage girls, were shot and buried while alive last month as punishment for willfulness, the newspaper Dawn reported Saturday.

When one member of parliament, Balochistan Sen. Sardar Israrullah Zehri, defended the act as "our tribal custom," others pounced, saying no such customs are recognized in Pakistan.

Leader of the House Mian Raza Rabbani said: "We condemn the heinous act and assure the House that a complete report on the incident would be submitted on Monday," Dawn reported.

Sen. Bibi Yasmin Shah of the PML-Q Party condemned the reports, which intimated the live burials had been carried out with the approval of a Pakistani Peoples Party minister as well as influential local elders. Another parliamentarian, Maulana Ghafoor Haideri of the JUI-F Party, disputed there has ever been such a tradition in Baloch society because it was against Islam's teachings, the newspaper reported.