Some hostages reported to escape Sahara siege

ALGIERS/BAMAKO (Reuters) - Some hostages were reported to have escaped from a remote Algerian gas plant on Thursday, where dozens of foreigners and scores of Algerians were seized by Islamist gunmen demanding a halt to a French military campaign in neighboring Mali. Governments around the world were holding emergency meetings to respond to one of the biggest international hostage crises...

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Stock futures dip on growth concerns, bank earnings eyed

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures slipped on Wednesday, pressured by low growth expectations and ahead of earnings from major financials including Goldman Sachs. JPMorgan Chase & Co reported an increase in fourth-quarter profits as the biggest U.S. bank made more home loans. Shares of Dow component Boeing fell 4.2 percent in premarket trading on concerns about...

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Lance Armstrong may not be done confessing

Lance Armstrong may not be done confessing.His interview with Oprah Winfrey hasn't aired yet, but already some people want to hear more — under oath — before Armstrong is allowed to compete in elite triathlons, a sport he returned to after retiring from cycling in 2011. In addition to stripping him of all seven of his Tour de France titles last year, anti-doping officials banned Armstrong for life...

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Spanish cuts widen Europe’s north-south research divide

MADRID (Reuters) – Amanda Bolanos, a young Spanish scientist, knows she will not be coming home.“Exiled in Cambodia” read the banner the molecular biologist carried at a protest in Madrid against government cutbacks. Back on leave from Phnom Penh, the 30-year-old researcher plans to head for Latin America if her present contract in Cambodia is not renewed. She sees little chance of finding work in...

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Give Lance another chance?

STORY HIGHLIGHTSMike Downey: I haven't a smidgen of sympathy for the dope "pedaler"Randy Cohen: If many cycling fans are right, most of the top riders engaged in doping Jeff Pearlman: Lance racing again is not truly an option anyway -- he's almost 42 John Hoberman: Any lifting of his lifetime ban should be based on his total cooperation (CNN) -- CNN asked for views on whether disgraced cyclist Lance...

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Japanese airlines ground Boeing 787s after emergency landing

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's two leading airlines grounded their fleets of Boeing 787s on Wednesday after one of the Dreamliner...

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Syrian army on offensive in Aleppo after university blast

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian armed forces launched a renewed offensive in the northern city of Aleppo on Wednesday, state media said, a day after 87 people were killed in explosions at the city's university. The state news agency SANA said the military had killed dozens of "terrorists" - a term Damascus uses for rebels trying to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad - in the new fighting....

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Stock index futures signal lower open

PARIS (Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Wall Street on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.04 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.17 percent at 4.55 a.m. ET. World shares stalled near 18-month highs and safe-haven Treasuries traded higher on Tuesday after U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned the economic recovery was at risk...

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AP source: Lance Armstrong tells Winfrey he doped

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Lance Armstrong has finally come clean.After years of bitter and forceful denials, he offered a simple "I'm sorry" to friends and colleagues and then admitted he used performance-enhancing drugs during an extraordinary cycling career that included seven Tour de France victories.Armstrong confessed to doping during an interview with Oprah Winfrey taped Monday, just a couple of...

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Saturn Moon Titan May Have Ice Floating in Lakes

Chunks of hydrocarbon ice may float atop the lakes and seas of Saturn’s huge moon Titan, a new study reveals.The presence of such ice floes in  the ethane and methane seas on Titan would make the moon an even more exciting target for astrobiologists, researchers said.“One of the most intriguing questions about these lakes and seas is whether they might host an exotic form of life,”...

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