Daily News Channel
NASA on Thursday put off the planned launch of the space shuttle Discovery for a third time to give engineers more time to study tests on a liquid hydrogen valve, the space agency announced. The shuttle’s liftoff — originally set for Tuesday — has been put off until 11:59 p.m. Friday, mission managers said.
Space shuttle Discovery was scheduled to launch early Tuesday morning for a mission to deliver equipment to the international space station.
A sudden surge of pirate attacks off the coast of eastern Somalia in recent days has prompted the U.S. military to put out a new alert to mariners, warning of increased danger in the region. The attacks, which took place south of the area patrolled by U.S.
Pharmaceuticals giants Merck and Schering-Plough are planning to merge their operations under the name Merck in a deal worth $41.1 billion.
British bank Lloyds has announced that HBOS, the rival it took over last year, made a £10.8 billion ($15.5 billion) pre-tax loss for 2008. Lloyds itself posted an 80 percent plunge in pre-tax profit to £807 million ($1.1 billion), which was in line with figures released in a trading update earlier this month.