update error with 12.04

[rikona]

Just tried an update. The GUI comes up only with a new boot [an old
problem on this box] but exits without doing anything.

CLI with 'apt-get update' gets almost all the way through, but ends
with:

-------

Get:81 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com precise-backports/universe Translation-en
[32.9 kB]
Ign http://www.mediahuman.com precise/main TranslationIndex                    
Ign http://www.mediahuman.com precise/main Translation-en_US
Ign http://www.mediahuman.com precise/main Translation-en
Fetched 27.7 MB in 3min 17s (140 kB/s)               
Reading package lists... Error!
E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList
/var/lib/apt/lists/us.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_precise-
updates_restricted_i18n_Translation-en
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

-----

I'm not sure what this means or how to fix it. I do note that the
'url's have spaces instead of /, but the first 80 gets seemed to work
OK even with spaces. The actual URL for get 81 seems to be:

http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/precise-backports/universe/i18n/Translation-en
of size 128K or gz version 35K which agrees with the file name in /var/lib/apt/lists/.
Is the added i18n part of the problem?

And, software center exits immediately - no err msg.

What can I do to get a successful update?

[Also, it's a PITA to have to reboot to get the GUI updater to work.
Is there a way to make it visible and useable? It is supposedly there
and running but is not visible or accessible.]

Thanks,

 rikona