AP - Mysterious space blobs aren't infant galaxies as astronomers once thought. Scientists say they mostly consist of galaxies going through puberty, all hot and bothered. A new study using NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory and other space and ground telescopes comes up with an explanation for these high-energy glowing blobs that have been observed for about a decade.

AP - President Barack Obama sits down this week with German Chancellor Angela Merkel under a cloud of disagreement over the way out of the global financial crisis and Germany's role in the U.S.-led Afghan war.

AP - North Korea vowed Thursday to enlarge its atomic arsenal and warned of a "fire shower of nuclear retaliation" in the event of a U.S. attack, as the regime marked the 1950 outbreak of the Korean War.

AP - Commuter rail tracks in the nation's capital are studded with devices that detect passing trains and tell them when to stop or slow down. But those devices on the stretch of track near where nine people were killed in a train crash didn't pass tests by investigators.

AP - With lawmakers trying to crunch the numbers on a $1 trillion health care overhaul, President Barack Obama is leaving the door open to a new tax on employer-provided health care benefits.

AP - EDITOR'S NOTE: Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media.

AP - South Carolina's governor once cited "moral legitimacy" when he was a congressman voting for President Bill Clinton's impeachment. He became a darling of fiscal conservatives over his ideological opposition to federal stimulus cash.

AFP - At least 55 people were killed by a bomb in a crowded market in Baghdad's sprawling slum neighbourhood of Sadr City on Wednesday, less than a week before US troops must pull out of Iraq's cities.

AFP - Riot police blocked protesters from gathering in Tehran on Wednesday, witnesses said, as Iran's supreme leader warned he will not back down in the face of unrest following the disputed presidential vote.

Reuters - The U.S. government will send an ambassador to Syria after a four-year hiatus as President Barack Obama moves to improve ties between the two countries, a State Department official said on Wednesday.

Reuters - The United States and Venezuela will soon reinstate ambassadors expelled in a diplomatic spat last year, a sign of warmer relations between President Hugo Chavez and what he calls the U.S. "empire."

Reuters - South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford said on Wednesday he was resigning as Chairman of the Republican Governors' Association after admitting to having an affair and being unfaithful to his wife.