USA

WASHINGTON, May 24 (Xinhua) - California-based private company SpaceX announced Thursday that its Dragon spacecraft completed key on-orbit tests as part of a historic attempt to be the first commercial company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station. Early Thursday morning, Dragon's thrusters fired, bringing the vehicle 2.4 kilometers below the station.

by Nadege Puljak | May 25, 2012 President Francois Hollande is on his first visit to Afghanistan since taking office earlier this month President Francois Hollande on Friday defended France's imminent exit from Afghanistan, saying 2,000 combat troops will leave in a coordinated withdrawal this year but vowing not to abandon the country. Hollande met French soldiers deployed in the volatile province of Kapisa

By Philip Pullella REUTERS Pope Benedict XVI waits prior to a private audience with Macedonia's Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski at the Vatican. The Vatican, embroiled for months in the so-called "Vatileaks" scandal involving the leak of secret papers, said on Friday its police had detained a person in possession of confidential documents. A Vatican statement said the person was being questioned by Vatican

by Veronica Smith | May 26, 2012 The Obama administration on Friday rejected calls within Congress to brand China a currency manipulator, but said its "significantly undervalued" currency was a key brake on global growth. The US Treasury Department said China had not met the standards for manipulation of the yuan, also known as the renminbi, to gain an unfair competitive trade advantage.

By Staff, Associated Press May 25, 2012 LONDON (AP) - Keira Knightley, the glamorous star of "Pirates of the Caribbean," is engaged to marry musician James Righton, her publicist said Friday. Publicist Sara Keene said the couple were not releasing any details of the proposal, and did not have any comment on wedding plans. Righton is a keyboard player for the rock group Klaxons.