1 | Florida A Final, Perilous Tune-Up The space shuttle Atlantis is on a last maintenance mission to the aging Hubble Space Telescope before its replacement, the James Webb Space Telescope, takes to the skies in 2014. It's a risky assignment: the Hubble's 350-mile-high orbit is clotted with fast-moving "space junk" that could damage the craft. With the International Space Station out of reach, a second shuttle, Endeavour, is ready to fetch the crew in case of an emergency.
Celestial Sightseers: Hubble vs. Webb
[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.]
HUBBLE WEBB ORBIT 353 miles from Earth 1 million miles from Earth PRIMARY-MIRROR SIZE 7.9 ft. in diameter 21.3 ft. in diameter LENGTH 44 ft. 72 ft. WEIGHT 24,500 lb. 14,300 lb.2 | Miami On Third Try, Conviction in Terrorist Plot After three years and two mistrials, a federal jury convicted five Miami-based men of conspiring to blow up the Sears Tower, Chicago's landmark skyscraper, in 2006. Ringleader Narseal Batiste, who was captured on tape swearing allegiance to al-Qaeda and threatening to "kill all the devils," faces up to 70 years in prison. He was the only suspect convicted on all charges--one was fully acquitted and one exonerated in a previous trial--in a protracted case that some experts said lacked convincing evidence. Defense lawyers vowed to appeal the convictions.
3 | Washington A New Warlord in Afghanistan General David McKiernan is being replaced as the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan by three-star Army Lieut. General Stanley McChrystal. It's the first dismissal of a wartime general since that of Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War. The appointment of McChrystal, a former special-ops chief credited with orchestrating the capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, signifies a more pointed, aggressive military posture in Afghanistan.
4 | Iraq Saying No to Kurdish Oil The Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq says it will start exporting crude oil for the first time on June 1, despite a statement by the Iraq Oil Ministry calling the plan illegal. The Kurds, who control some of the country's largest reserves, claim that the Iraqi constitution allows them to broker deals with foreign companies; the ministry maintains that it controls all oil contracts and that any firm that signs without its approval will be blacklisted.
5 | Jerusalem Sins of Omission Sometimes it's what you don't say that hurts. Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the Middle East, including historic trips to the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock, drew complaints that the German Pontiff had glossed over Nazism in a May 11 speech on the Holocaust. Muslim leaders also awaited an apology, for his hinting in a 2006 speech that Islam was violent and irrational.
6 | Afghanistan POISON-GAS ATTACKS At least 84 Afghan girls were admitted to a hospital in the small town of Mahmud Raqi for nausea and headaches after the third apparent poisoning at a school in less than three weeks. Officials suspect Islamic extremists, who have been known to burn down schoolhouses and spray acid in schoolgirls' faces. Women could not attend classes under the Taliban.