Mark Memmott

Good morning.

The space shuttle Endeavour landed safely in Florida early today, bringing to a close its final mission in space. NASA has posted video of the predawn landing.

When a group of Libyan rebels got hold of a radio belonging to the Libyan military, they had some fun at their enemy's expense and sent a very pointed message to the forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi.

This is one of those videos that will restore your faith in people even as it also shows how remarkably cruel the world can be.

The cruel part is that there was a gunfight Friday outside a school in northern Mexico. Five people were killed at a taxi stand. No surprise: Drugs were involved.

After more than a month of denials, an Egyptian Army general has told CNN that some female protesters were forced after a March 9 confrontation with soldiers to undergo "virginity checks."

John Bryson, the retired former CEO of Edison International, has been chosen by President Obama to be the next secretary of commerce, The Associated Press, CNN, Politico and several other news outlets are reporting.

The president is expected to make the announcement early this afternoon.

Bryson would succeed Secretary Gary Locke, who has been tapped to be the next ambassador to China.

A second high-powered international banker now faces charges of sexually assaulting a maid at a Manhattan hotel.

Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar, of Egypt, was arrested on Monday after an incident at The Pierre, a hotel on the Upper East Side.

According to The Associated Press:

Anxiety about the job market, inflation and the general economic outlook combined to push down consumer confidence in May, the private Conference Board business research group just reported.

It's Consumer Confidence Index slipped to 60.8 from 66 in April.

Lynn Franco, director of the group's Consumer Research Center, says in a statement released with the report that:

There are conflicting reports at this hour about the fate of Syed Saleem Shahzad, Pakistan bureau chief for Asia Times Online, who has been missing since Sunday evening.

Pakistan's Daily Times says that Human Rights Watch has been told by "credible sources" that Shahzad "is in custody of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)" — Pakistan's intelligence agency.

There was a 4.2 percent drop in home prices during the first quarter according to the widely watched S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices report, which was just released.

And after the 3.6 percent decline in fourth-quarter 2010, prices have "hit a new recession low" and are down 5.1 percent from first-quarter 2010.

"Nationally, home prices are back to their mid-2002 levels," the report adds.

"New York Rep. Anthony Weiner [D] has retained an attorney to advise him 'what civil or criminal actions should be taken' after a lewd picture was sent from his Twitter account," Politico reports.

"Angered by civilian casualties, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday that he will no longer allow NATO airstrikes on houses, issuing his strongest statement yet against strikes that the military alliance says are key to its war on Taliban insurgents," The Associated Press reports.

In the latest incident, AP says, "at least nine civilians were killed" Saturday in Helmand province during a NATO strike.

"Four people have been confirmed dead in an Interstate-95 bus wreck," The Richmond Times-Dispatch writes, and the northbound side of the heavily traveled route is now closed starting at Exit 98 in Virginia's Caroline County.

Good morning.

If you're just getting going after the holiday weekend and need a quick recap of the top news:

A video showing a 13-year-old boy's mutilated corpse has shocked many Syrians and is turning the victim, Hamza Ali al-Khateeb, into a martyr. Many of those demanding the end of President Bashar Assad's regime say his death will strengthen their resolve and inspire others to come to their cause.

Too graphic for us to post, but not hard to find, the video, as The New York Times writes:

It felt "like being bashed across the cheek with a lead pipe."

That's how Carmen Gentile, a freelance journalist who has done a lot of reporting from Afghanistan for USA TODAY, describes what it was like last September when a rocket-propelled grenade fired at U.S. troops in Kunar province caught the side of his head.

Like many of you, we hope, The Two-Way is planning to take some time off over this holiday weekend.

We may put up a post or two, and will certainly jump back in if there's major news. But the general plan is to resume blogging Tuesday morning.

The reason Americans are have a long weekend, of course, is that Monday is Memorial Day. And that's much more than just the unofficial start of summer.

From this year's presidential proclamation:

As they pledged $40 billion to help countries that make reforms during this "Arab Spring" in North Africa and the Middle East, President Obama and the other leaders of the world's most powerful nations also issued a warning to "autocratic regimes in the Arab world" and to Iran.

As The Associated Press puts it:

"They will be shut out of rich-country aid and investment," AP writes, "while new democracies are encouraged to open their economies."

The Charleston Gazette and NPR have together filed a legal motion with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals to open up records related to the merger of Alpha Natural Resources and Massey Energy, the company that operated the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia, where 29 mine workers died in a massive explosion in April 2010.

The Republican field for the 2012 presidential race may soon include the governor of Texas.

"I'm going to think about it," Gov. Rick Perry said today, according to the Austin American-Statesman's Postcards blog.

A U.S. District Court judge in Virginia "has ruled that the campaign finance law banning corporations from making [direct] contributions to federal candidates is unconstitutional," The Associated Press reports.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which appears to have had the story first, adds that the case "is likely to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court." The decision would only affect cases in the Alexandria, Va.-based district.

There are 156 people still unaccounted for following Sunday's devastating tornado in Joplin, Mo., state officials just reported.

That's down from 232 on Thursday.

Officials report that in the past 24 hours, 90 people reported they're OK or were located, and 6 people from the "unaccounted for" list were confirmed to have been killed.

Science isn't our strongest subject, so we hope that some of you and perhaps our friends at the 13.7 blog can add some further insights into the news that Australian college student Amelia Fraser-McKelvie has helped solve a "cosmic mystery of massive dimensions," as The Sydney Morning Herald puts it.

The soccer world is stunned this morning by the news that Sepp Blatter, president of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) must face the organization's ethics committee on Sunday to answer questions about what, if anything, he knew regarding a bribes-for-votes scandal inside the soccer's world governing body.

How serious is this?

Those who follow the game closely aren't holding back:

Two stories; two very different views that underscore the incredibly complicated U.S.-Pakistan relationship:

"At least three people are reported killed in the southern Syrian town of Dael after security forces opened fire to disperse a demonstration," al-Jazeera reports, saying it is getting that information from activists in Syria.

In Yemen, according to al-Arabiya TV (via Reuters), the air force has "dropped bombs on armed tribesmen who seized an area outside the capital Sanaa."

From the summit of world leaders in France, Reuters reports that:

"Russia is ready to mediate in the Libyan crisis following a request from its partners in the Group of Eight, a senior Russian official told reporters. ...

In Sudan, "around 80,000 people have fled since the north Sudanese army seized the disputed Abyei region almost a week ago," a local official tells Reuters.

"The situation is going from worse to even worse," Dominic Deng, commissioner of the of a region in south Sudan that borders Abyei told the wire service. Many of the refugees have fled to his region, Deng said, and "they are sleeping under the trees. They need food and water ... some people are dying."

Another broadcaster has gotten in trouble for offensive behavior.

But it doesn't look like there will be any lingering contoversy.

Liberal talker Ed Schultz of MSNBC has apologized at length for the very vile word he used in reference to conservative talker Laura Ingraham. And Schultz has been suspended for a week by the network.

"Get me off of there!" 75-year-old Sally Adams told The Associated Press earlier today when a reporter informed her that her name is the first on the list of 232 people who haven't been accounted for since a massive tornado blew through Joplin, Mo., on Sunday.

"Pakistan has agreed to allow the CIA to send a forensics team to examine the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed," The Washington Post just reported, citing "U.S. officials" as its sources.

According to the Post, the team will be looking for materials that the al-Qaida leader and his follows might have hidden at the site.