EARTHQUAKE

New Zealand suffered its second ratings downgrade within hours on Friday as Standard & Poor's cut the country's rating by one notch because of its growing foreign debt, after rival Fitch Ratings' had taken similar action.

The Canary Islands are an archipelago of more than a dozen islands that are an autonomous region of Spain.

The Federal Reserve's move last week to further lower borrowing costs was risky and won't significantly speed up a painfully protracted recovery, one of the officials who dissented against the decision said on Thursday.

Forget Fez and Marrakesh! See the hassle-free Morocco in the capital, Rabat.

Washington Monument Earthquake Repair Rapelling Not as Crazy as it Sounds; 10 Other Unique Monument Repair Jobs

A dramatic new surveillance video shows the recently closed Washington Monument shaking during the Virginia earthquake on Aug. 23.

The security camera videos, recorded from three different camera angles, show the panicking tourists as the pieces of the monument were coming down from the top of the structure.

The National Park Service will announce on Monday much damage the Washington Monument sustained during the 5.8-magnitude Virginia earthquake.

The freed hikers that were held in Iran for over two years have a strange list of people to thank for their safe return to the US including Hugo Chavez and Sean Penn.

U.S. actor Sean Penn engaged in attempts to secure the release of two Americans freed by Iran this week, flying to Venezuela to ask President Hugo Chavez to intervene with Iran's leader, a source close to the release process said on Friday.

FedEx Corp is seen reporting higher quarterly results than a year ago on Thursday, but analysts are more keen to see if the No. 2 package delivery company cuts its full-year guidance because stalled global economic growth has stifled volume.

Rescue workers with sensors and sniffer dogs searched through rubble on Wednesday for more survivors of an earthquake that has killed at least 100 people in a remote Himalayan region and left many, including 400 foreigners, stranded in far-flung areas.

Canada's annual inflation rate climbed to a higher-than-expected 3.1 percent in August, but analysts said on Wednesday this was unlikely to worry the Bank of Canada, which is more concerned about problems in Europe and the United States.

Canadian commercial lending rose in the second quarter, PayNet Inc said on Wednesday, in a report that showed smaller businesses we're expanding even as economic storm clouds gather in Europe and the United States.

Typhoon Roke is moving off shore and toward the Kuril Island archipelago between Japan and Russia, according to reports. The storm is still pounding the central Japan with rain, including the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which has so far avoid any major damage.

Typhoon Roke, the second typhoon to hit Japan this month, has left more than 250,000 households without power. Three people have been confirmed dead, while more are considered missing.

The storm made landfall near the city of Hamamatsu, about 125 miles west of Tokyo, and it is expected to move toward the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant

Six thousand troops have been deployed to the India-Nepal border, where a 6.9 magnitude earthquake hit Sunday night. The current death toll has risen to 90 people, about 50 from the Indian state of Sikkim, along with others in Nepal and Tibet.

Seven scientists are on trial in Italy for manslaughter charges relating to more than 300 deaths from an 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila.

Four earthquakes continuously hit southern Guatemala Monday within two and a half hours, causing at least one death, reports said.

Four earthquakes struck Guatemala continuously within 90 minutes, shaking buildings in the capital, triggering landslides and killing three people.