North Korea said Friday it would launch a rocket next month to put a satellite into orbit, a move that would breach a United Nations resolution passed after a previous launch in 2009. The event was scheduled between April 12-16 to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of founding leader Kim Il-Sung, the official news agency said.

Brain and eye problems have surfaced in astronauts who spent more than a month in space, marking a potential setback to plans for longer deep space missions, a US study said Tuesday. The research in the journal Radiology analyzed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of 27 astronauts with an average of 108 days in space, either on space shuttle missions or aboard the International Space Station. Shuttle missions typically lasted a couple …

The first privately owned passenger spaceship is on track for a test flight beyond the atmosphere this year, and nearly 500 people have signed up for rides. Another company just closed on $5 million equity financing, enough to finish building a two-seater rocketplane called Lynx. Both firms -- and a half-dozen more -- are looking at flying not just people, but experiments and payloads owned by research laboratories, businesses and educational institutes. …

US ambassador to Egypt rushed to Germany from where she will return to United States, according to German news agency. Earlier, around 100 protesters calling for an end to military rule in Egypt clashed with soldiers near the US embassy in Cairo. Shouting "Down with military power!" the protesters lobbed stones at the soldiers, who responded by throwing them back and trying to disperse the crowd. The soldiers then returned to their position, where …

A strong geomagnetic storm is racing from the Sun toward Earth, and its expected arrival on Thursday could affect power grids, airplane routes and space-based satellite navigation systems, U.S. space weather experts said. The storm, a big cloud of charged particles flung from the Sun at about 4.5 million miles per hour (7.2 million km per hour), was spawned by a pair of solar flares, scientists said. This is probably the strongest such event in …

The United States led international pledges of emergency aid to Congo after huge blasts at an arms depot in Brazzaville killed more than 150 people and left 1,000 injured. President Denis Sassou Nguesso announced a curfew in the capital and cordoned off the area around the devastated eastern district of Mpila, as Congo issued a plea for international help on Monday. The government said an electrical short-circuit likely caused a fire which triggered …

The yen edged up against the dollar and the euro in Asian trade Tuesday as investors adjusted their positions. The dollar was trading at 81.42 yen in Tokyo morning trade, down from 81.53 yen in New York late Monday. The euro was changing hands at $1.3223 and at 107.58 yen compared with $1.3218 and 107.76 yen. "Although there are risks of a stronger yen coming from position-adjusting after the performances of stock markets in Europe and the United …

The United States is "very concerned" about the latest assault by Al-Qaeda militants in Yemen but does not believe the government's survival is in jeopardy, a Pentagon spokesman said Monday. In one of the single deadliest attacks against Yemeni forces, more than 100 government soldiers have been killed in fighting after suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen attacked military posts in Yemen's south on Sunday, medical officials in Yemen said. "We view Yemen …

A two-year-old girl who was found barely alive amid the bodies of her parents and siblings after horrific tornadoes hit the United States, died Sunday after a 48-hour fight for life. Angel Babcock was discovered in a field near her family's home in New Pekin, southern Indiana after Friday's horrific weather and was taken to hospital in neighboring Kentucky where her condition was initially described as critical. The two-year-old, who becomes the …

The world's oceans are turning acidic at what could be the fastest pace of any time in the past 300 million years, even more rapidly than during a monster emission of planet-warming carbon 56 million years ago, scientists said on Thursday. Looking back at that bygone warm period in Earth's history could offer help in forecasting the impact of human-spurred climate change, researchers said of a review of hundreds of studies of ancient climate records …