World briefs
Shuttle-ing along LA streets
The shuttle Endeavour has maintained a heading through the streets of Los Angeles toward its retirement home at a museum.
Endeavour’s final mission began when it departed from the Los Angeles International Airport before dawn on Friday, rolling on a 160-wheeled carrier past diamond-shaped ‘Shuttle Xing’ signs.
On Friday evening, it stopped as crews spent hours transferring the shuttle to a special, lighter towing dolly.
Then at around midnight, it travelled over a bridge across Interstate 405, an especially tricky part of the complicated journey because of the size of the spacecraft and width of the bridge.
The shuttle was pulled across the Manchester Boulevard Bridge by a Toyota Tundra pickup, and the car company filmed the event for a commercial after paying for a permit, turning the entire scene into a movie set complete with special lighting, sound and staging.
Al-Qaeda chief for ‘holy war’
The leader of Al-Qaeda has urged Muslims to wage holy war against the US and Israel over a film that insulted Islam’s Prophet Mohammed.
Ayman al-Zawahri praised as “honest and zealous” demonstrators who breached the US Embassy in Cairo and attackers who stormed the US “embassy” in Benghazi in violence linked to the film.
The American Ambassador and three others died in the September 11 attack on the US Consulate in the Libyan city.
The amateur film Innocence of Muslims was made by an Egyptian-born American citizen.
Surgery not to be sniffed at
A dog that lost its snout while saving two girls in the Philippines has been taken to the US where vets will try to fix its injuries.
Surgeons at University of California’s veterinary medical teaching hospital in Davis looked over the mixed-breed dog named Kabang on Thursday.
Kabang became a star in the Philippines after it got in front of a speeding motorcycle, saving the dog owner’s young daughter and niece.
But the crash took off its snout and upper jaw, and veterinarians in the Philippines were unable to treat the injury.
Karen Kenngott, a critical care nurse from Buffalo, New York, spearheaded an online fundraising campaign for the dog’s care.
UC Davis surgeons say Kabang will need multiple surgeries, but they are confident they can improve its condition.