World

PASADENA, Calif  (Reuters) – The Mars rover Curiosity, the most sophisticated mobile science lab ever sent to another world, hurtled closer to the Red Planet yesterday, on track “to fly through the eye of the needle” for a precise, safe landing on Sunday night, NASA officials said.

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) – Pirates attacked a ship being used by an oil servicing company in the waters off southeastern Nigeria  yesterday, killing two Nigerian naval guards and kidnapping four foreigners, the Navy and the boat’s shipping firm said.

MIAMI, (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Ernesto strengthened yesterday and will soon bulk up into a hurricane while keeping a westerly course in the Caribbean Sea that may threaten Jamaica, US forecasters said.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – As it spirals deeper into civil war, racked by violence, bombs and assassinations, Syria is led by an invisible president.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – For all its recent tough talk, Israel looks highly unlikely to launch an attack against Iran ahead of U.S.

DUBAI (Reuters) – A bus load of Iranians were abducted by gunmen while on a pilgrimage in Syria yesterday, Iranian media reported, the latest in a string of kidnappings of visitors from the Islamic Republic, a country allied to President Bashar al-Assad.

ALEPPO, Syria,  (Reuters) – Syrian forces stormed the last rebel stronghold in the capital Damascus in tanks and armoured vehicles yesterday and blasted artillery at rebels in Aleppo, where the United Nations said the army was preparing a massive assault.

ADDIS ABABA, (Reuters) – Sudan and South Sudan have reached a deal on oil payments and will soon discuss when to resume southern oil exports through the north, a mediator from the African Union said yesterday.

LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – Three of Michael Jackson’s siblings vowed yesterday to keep up their fight to have the pop star’s will thrown out, but denied their efforts were motivated by money.

WASHINGTON – U.S. employers hired the most workers in five months in July, but an increase in the jobless rate to 8.3 percent kept prospects of further monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve on the table.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – U.S. weather has been lousy this year, with droughts, heat and killer storms.

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – A former Mexican state governor pleaded guilty in a New York federal court yesterday to conspiring to launder millions of dollars of cocaine trafficking proceeds.

MIAMI,  (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Ernesto formed in the Atlantic Ocean near the Windward Islands yesterday and could strengthen into a hurricane as it races westward across the Caribbean Sea, forecasters said.

TEGUCIGALPA, (Reuters) – The Honduran Congress approved a law on Wednesday that prohibits the public possession and transportation of guns in a region of the country where drug trafficking and other agrarian conflicts are blamed for the killings of more than 60 people in the past three years.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing U.S.

BEIJING,  (Reuters) – Gu Kailai, the wife of deposed Chinese leader Bo Xilai and a career lawyer, faces possible execution for murder at the hands of a swift, unblinking justice system that she once championed.

NASHVILLE, Tenn., (Reuters) – An argument over who is more opposed to the Islamic faith and the construction of a mosque near Nashville has become an unlikely issue in a nasty Tennessee Republican congressional primary to be decided today.

LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – Writer Gore Vidal, who filled his novels and essays with acerbic observations on politics, sex and American culture while carrying on feuds with big-name literary rivals, died on Tuesday at home in Los Angeles of complications from pneumonia, age 86.

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – A technology breakdown at a major trading firm roiled the prices of 140 stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, undermining fragile investor confidence in the stability of U.S.

TEGUCIGALPA, (Reuters) – Honduran Finance Minister Hector Guillen resigned yesterday, a day after his wife was arrested with the equivalent of more than $57,600 in her vehicle.