Three more airstrikes shook Gaza early Friday morning, following Israel's attack in the Gaza Strip on Thursday. The Israeli military did not immediately confirm the latest strikes, though Thursday's bombing—which killed the chief of a militant Palestinian group—was an act of retaliation after a series of terror attacks in Israel left seven dead and 25 injured. The attacks began when gunmen fired on a tourist bus in the resort town of Eilat. Within an hour, explosives were detonated near a military patrol traveling along the border with Egypt. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the attack “reflects the weakening of Egypt's hold in the Sinai and the broadening of activities by terror elements." Hamas in Gaza denied responsibility, but said it would fight back if Israel attacked it. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the terrorist attacks and echoed Barak's concerns about the Sinai, urging the Egyptian government to find "a lasting solution."

The markets are at it again: The Dow Jones industrial average plunged nearly 400 points Thursday and the S&P 500 fell nearly 5 percent, pushed down by a slew of negative economic data. U.S. unemployment applications rose more than expected last week, consumer prices are up, and Japan reported dismal export data. The combination of rising prices and tepid employment, analysts say, makes it harder for the Fed to take stimulative measures to boost the economy. A bright spot, again, was gold, which rose to a staggering and record price of $1,822 per ounce. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley warned that the global economy is "dangerously close" to a recession, and European sell-off is at a rate not seen since the crisis three years ago.

Three people were reportedly killed in twin explosions in the Afghan capital, Kabul, early Friday morning. Kabul police officer Farooq Asas said a suicide bomber, reportedly from the Taliban, set off a car lined with explosives, and he reported that two Afghan policemen and a municipal worker were killed. The British Council and the U.N. were reportedly the targets for the attacks. A reporter for the Associated Press said there was gunfire and smoke rising from the area. A U.S. spokesman confirmed the attacks but did not give any more details. The Taliban has claimed responsibility.

Embattled Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi is preparing to flee Libya, Pentagon sources told NBC News on Thursday. Gaddafi is reportedly planning to go to Tunisia, where he and his family will be granted exile, in a matter of days. But some warned that these intelligence reports may not be enough to assume Gaddafi’s exit, given his history of instability. The news comes on the same day that Libyan rebels captured a key oil refinery in Zawiyah, only a half hour from Gaddafi’s stronghold in Tripoli.

Former consumer-protection head Elizabeth Warren inched closer to a U.S. Senate run from Massachusetts Thursday when she filed to launch an exploratory committee. A Warren adviser said her final decision will come sometime around Labor Day. Warren had become somewhat of a liberal superstar in her time as the chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel, created in response to the 2008 financial collapse. But she could face as many as six others in a primary for the Senate seat, currently occupied by popular GOP incumbent Scott Brown. Republicans dismissed Warren’s possible candidacy, pointing out that she is originally from Oklahoma and has spent the last few years in Washington and as a Harvard professor.

Protesters in the central city of Homs were met with a fresh crackdown on Thursday night by Syrian forces, after President Bashar al-Assad told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that his troops had ended operations in Damascus, which he said is besieged by "armed terrorist gangs." But Assad apparently went back on his word: Human-rights groups reported heavy shooting in Damascus on Thursday night, where demonstrators were marching after evening prayers. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that forces were setting up checkpoints in surrounding suburbs. Tanks have now reportedly moved into Homs, where one protester was shot dead and another severely wounded earlier in the evening, according to activists. Earlier today, President Obama issued a statement demanding that Assad step down, and was backed by European leaders. The U.N. announced it will send a team to assess the situation on Saturday.

Another mystery in the Memphis Three case? An Arkansas court has called a short-notice hearing Friday for three men who were convicted in 1993 of killing three young boys. All the men—Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr., and Jason Baldwin—are expected to appear in a Jonesboro court. The state attorney general’s office would not comment on the case because of a gag order on the participants. All three were convicted of murdering second graders Steven Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers in an alleged satanic ritual. The boys’ bodies were found mutilated in a ditch, hogtied with their own shoelaces. Echols, considered by prosecutors to be the ringleader, was sentenced to death in May 1993, and Misskelley and Baldwin were given life sentences.

A Pennsylvania father and son were arrested Thursday for allegedly making harassing phone calls to the family of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin. Craig Christy, 47, and his son, Shawn, 19, of McAdoo, Pa., were also charged Wednesday in a federal indictment filed in Alaska with making harassing phone calls from Aug. 1 to Aug. 9, calls that were made after Palin obtained a restraining order against the two men. An Alaska state court issued a restraining order against Shawn Christy in September 2010, ordering that he have no further contact with Palin. He previously admitted in court to having threatened to rape Palin, sending her emails and gifts and traveling to Anchorage earlier this year. No bail was set for the pair, and they will be transported to Anchorage for further proceedings, the FBI said.

A Virginia man who was convicted of raping and suffocating an 88-year-old woman was executed Thursday in the state’s first use of a new drug cocktail. Jerry Terrell Jackson, 30, was executed by a lethal dose of a three-drug cocktail that used pentobarbital rather than the sedative sodium thiopental because of a shortage of the drug. While attorneys in some states have contested the use of pentobarbital, federal courts have ruled that the change is not significant enough to stop executions. Jackson was sentenced to death for the 2001 rape and murder of Ruth Phillips in her Williamsburg apartment. Jackson said “no” softly when asked if he had any final words.

Now that Prince Harry’s single, does he want to find out if the Beach Boys were right about California girls? His spokesman confirmed Thursday that the younger prince will be traveling to the U.S. sometime in the next couple of months to complete helicopter training. Harry’s spokesman Nick Loughran said the prince will spend two and a half to three months in Arizona and California as part of a standard program for British Apache pilots. When he finishes, he will be appointed to an Apache squadron within Britain that could send him back to a war zone.

Will the next person to leave News Corp. be Rupert Murdoch’s son James? Sources inside the media giant tell Reuters the once unthinkable is certainly possible now, and executives are preparing what they will do if Murdoch’s heir apparent needs to “take a breather.” “The company is still trying to operate as if James isn’t going anywhere,” one high-ranking insider said. “But everyone is thinking about what will happen if he has to step aside.” News Corp. insisted in a statement that James, the deputy chief operating officer, is not going anywhere, and plans are still in place for him to relocate to New York early next year. James Murdoch testified before Parliament in July, and parts of his testimony have been questioned.

Federal officials have broken up a major Mexican-supplied drug- and weapons-trafficking ring that was caught selling large amounts of drugs, guns, and grenades and smuggling them to an Iraqi community in Detroit. Police in El Cajon, Calif., say they’ve made more than 60 arrests in the bust, and the feds have seized 18 pounds of methamphetamine, narcotics, cocaine, and other drugs, including 3,500 pounds of marijuana. They also recovered $630,000 in cash and more than 30 guns, including assault rifles. Officials believe the Detroit Iraqis were planning to distribute much of the marijuana and that the firearms were going to be sold in local markets. The ring was supplied by Sinaloa, Mexico’s biggest and most powerful drug cartel.

A new twist in the Robyn Gardner murder mystery: Gary Giordano, the only suspect currently linked to her disappearance in Aruba, tried to collect on Gardner’s insurance policy within days of reporting her missing. Investigators are now suspicious that he had tried to set up an accidental-death insurance policy, particularly since it would be odd for him to redeem a policy for a weeklong romantic romp in the tropics. A former special agent for the FBI weighed in on the revelation. “Had he planned all along to lure her to Aruba and kill her for the insurance money? It has that flavor to it,” he told ABC News, “but we’ll have to see how evidence bears out.” He added that the move would have looked less suspicious had he taken out preventative insurance for two people. Authorities also say that Giordano has "explicit photos of Gardner" on his camera .

A senior White House official said Thursday that federal deportation policy will be eased in an effort to better locate high-risk undocumented immigrants. Authorities will individually review 300,000 illegal immigrants’ cases and allow those who haven’t committed crimes or aren’t deemed a threat to public safety to have the chance to stay in the U.S. and apply for a work permit, the official said. The decision could ultimately benefit 11 million illegal immigrants who live in the U.S. but live under the radar to avoid being deported. Some immigration advocates cheered the news because it will unclog the system, but hardliners were angered by the new policy, with some saying it would allow “virtually unlimited” immigration.

The cheer and good fun at Belgium's Pukkelpop Music Festival was overshadowed by a dark cloud Thursday, when a massive storm swept through the grounds, killing three and injuring 71. Around 60,000 concertgoers attended the festival and dashed to take cover when the storm broke. Stage equipment dangled in high winds, and trees and scaffolds were brought down. Those injured were taken to nearby hospitals surrounding the town of Hasselt, where the festival took place. The incident is the second in a week to occur at an outdoor festival, following the collapse of a stage in 60 mph winds at the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis, killing five and injuring dozens.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry met a feisty opposition at a campaign stop in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Thursday. "Stop attacking middle-class families," shouted sign-wielding protesters as the GOP presidential candidate shook hands and signed autographs. Perry tried to keep the focus on jobs and the economy, but the protesters continued as he entered a café to try a pastry, asking him about evolution, climate change, and renewable energy. A little boy asked the governor, "How old do you think the Earth is?" and about the theory of evolution, before his mother prompted, "Ask him why he doesn't believe in science." Perry answered that evolution is "a theory that's out there, and it's got some gaps in it," adding that creationism is also taught in Texas schools.

Good thing a chupacabra hasn’t found it. A mysterious creature that was photographed at a water-treatment plant in California turns out to be a capybara, the world’s largest rodent. Capybaras are native to South America and are usually only found in the U.S. in zoos. The animal at the Paso Robles wastewater-treatment plant was first photographed by a plant employee as it made its way to the Salinas River. It weighs 100-120 pounds, and it may have lived there for several years: game wardens received a report of a wild capybara in the area three years ago but figured it was a mistake. Eights months after that, a farmer called to say a huge rodent had scared away his horse and begun eating its hay. When wardens arrived, they found capybara footprints but did not hear again of the animal until this most recent sighting. Because the capybara is harmless, wardens are content to let it remain wild unless hunters and trappers begin to target it.

As President Obama plans for new stimulus spending after Labor Day, he’s considering ideas including tax breaks for companies that hire workers new roads and construction spending, and mortgage relief for struggling homeowners. The package will be “revenue neutral,” with all spending offset by long-term savings. In fact, Obama will call on Congress’ debt committee to go beyond the $1.5 trillion in savings it has been tasked with finding, while making the case that short-term spending will improve the nation’s long-term economic outlook. “We can’t afford to just do one or the other. We’ve got to do both,” Obama told a crowd Wednesday in Illinois.

Major websites have developed a new—and legal—technique to track users’ online activities, known as a “supercookie,” a powerful device that is impossible for computer users to detect, researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, said Wednesday. Supercookies are capable of re-creating user profiles even after people delete the regular cookies, researchers said. While many companies have been criticized for the selling of private data online, some sites that use supercookies said the supercookie tracking was inadvertent and they would cease using it. MSN and Hulu, who were both notified that they had been using supercookies, announced Wednesday they would immediately investigate the technique. Knowing Web-browsing history can provide advertisers with information about people’s interests, locations, and finances—and the federal government has debated ways to protect consumer privacy.

Police in Britain have arrested News of the World’s former Hollywood reporter James Desborough—their 13th arrest since phone-hacking investigations began. Desborough, who was promoted to be the paper’s U.S. editor in 2009, was charged with conspiring to intercept communications. Desborough’s move to the U.S. raises the question whether he brought the illegal methods he is accused of practicing in Britain across the Atlantic with him. He wrote for News of the World until it closed last month.

A poster on an al-Qaeda message board has called on U.S. muslims to cut out David Letterman’s tongue and “break his neck” after the late-night host made a joke about terrorists. "Is there not among you a Sayyid Nosair al-Mairi ... to cut the tongue of this lowly Jew and shut it forever?" the poster, who went by Umar al-Basrawi, asked. (Al-Mairi killed Jewish Defense League founder Meir Kahane in 1990; Letterman is not Jewish.) Al-Basrawi was particularly angered by jokes Letterman had made about Osama bin Laden and Muhammad Ilyas Kashmiri, an al-Qaeda operative who was killed June 3. When it learned of the threat, the NYPD notified CBS and Letterman at his suburban home; the department may also provide a police detail when Letterman comes to New York City.

Republican candidates often don’t like the press, but Michele Bachmann is taking it to a whole new level. Politico says there are at least five incidents of political reporters claiming to have been pushed, shoved, and threatened with violence by Bachmann’s staff. Two of these incidents became their own news stories: ABC News’ Brian Ross was pushed around by Bachmann staffers, while CNN’s Don Lemon was pushed into a cart by Bachmann’s husband, Marcus. Fox News correspondent Steve Brown also was caught on camera telling a Bachmann bodyguard “Do not put your hands on me. Do not do it ever again.” And a foreign reporter tells Politico a Bachmann aide threatened to break his arm. (Bachmann’s camp denies the allegation.) Bachmann’s most aggressive aide is a former Secret Service agent who her campaign says has previously guarded presidents. “The No. 1 priority for us every single day we step out on the campaign trail is the safety and security of Michele Bachmann,” says the campaign's spokeswoman.

Rick Perry told an audience in New Hampshire Wednesday that scientists have “manipulated data” about climate change “so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects.” The accusation came in response to a question from a Republican who said he worried the rejection of climate-change data “calls into question…America’s status as an advanced technological society." Earlier, Perry had said programs to battle climate change are costing the United States “billions, if not trillions” of dollars. Without specifying what he meant, he went on to say, "I don't think, from my perspective, that I want America to be engaged in spending that much money on what is still a scientific theory that hasn't been proven, and from my perspective is more and more being put into question."

Syria President Bashar al-Assad told the United Nations Wednesday that the military offensive has "stopped." U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Assad's comments came after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded all military operations and mass arrests cease. Syrian government forces held hundreds in a stadium in Latakia, residents said—part of mass arrests from raids of houses in the Sunni district of the besieged city. Latakia, a port city in the southeast, is of particular importance to Assad, since his family is from the area, and they control the city’s port and its finances. Meanwhile, the United Nations is expected to propose that the tribunal at The Hague investigate Assad and his forces for possible war crimes.

Sources told The New York Times on Wednesday that the Justice Department is investigating the credit-rating agency Standard & Poor’s for improperly rating dozens of mortgage securities in the years leading up to the financial crisis. The investigation began before S&P’s high-profile downgrade of the U.S.’s AAA credit rating, but it is sure to add to the controversy over that decision. It is not immediately clear if the Justice Department investigation includes the other two rating agencies, Moody’s and Fitch. Sources also told the Times that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating S&P for possible misconduct.

The NYPD may not charge you for having small amounts of marijuana, but the city’s child welfare agency is taking a harder line. Hundreds of New Yorkers who have been caught with small amounts of marijuana—or who have merely admitted to using it—have been charged with child neglect, and in some cases had their children taken away. One man had his 1-year-old daughter taken away after he was found with a $5 bag of marijuana, and another parent was charged with neglect after police found an amount of marijuana too small even for a misdemeanor charge. “There is not the same use of crack cocaine as there used to be, so they are filing these cases instead,” says the director of the Brooklyn Family Defense Project.

A new study has found that dogs can detect the smell of organic compounds that are linked to the presence of cancer in the human body. Scientists had the dogs sniff test tubes that contained breath samples from patients who had lung cancer and some who did not. The dogs identified lung cancer in 71 out of 100 patients who had the disease. Findings indicate that dogs may be a good “detection device,” say researchers, who caution: "We’ve seen this happen enough to suggest there are compounds in the breath of patients with cancer that could provide an early warning about the presence of cancer in the body, but we still do not know exactly what those compounds are. We can’t pick out what the dogs smell.”

Gaddafi must be feeling the heat. Libyan rebels took control of a major oil refinery in Zawiyah, which is just a half hour from the colonel’s stronghold in Tripoli, and took other areas around the strategic port city. There were signs that many of Gaddafi’s forces deserted the battle. Rebel fighters also said that some Gaddafi loyalists had tried to escape in two boats near the refinery complex, but NATO bombed them. Meanwhile, people leaving Tripoli said that the capital has lost electricity and there are shortages of basic goods, which are further signs that Gaddafi’s time may be running short.

Former Delaware Senate candidate and Tea Party darling Christine O’Donnell stormed off the set of CNN on Wednesday after Piers Morgan tried to ask her about her views on sexual abstinence and gay marriage. “I'm not talking about policies. I’m not running for office,” O’Donnell said. “Ask Michele Bachmann what she thinks.” O’Donnell insisted she only wanted to talk about the Tea Party principles outlined in her new book, Troublemaker. After some hostile back and forth banter, O'Donnell cut the interview short, saying that she was there "not to endure a rude talk-show host, but to talk to you about my book and the issues I address in my book.” She has since told Fox News that wasn't bothered by the gay marriage questions, but rather by a "a decidedy inappropriate line of qestions leading up to that," and his insistance on "talking about sex."

Israel launched an airstrike in the Gaza Strip, killing the chief of a militant Palestinian group, the Popular Resistance Committees, and five other people. The strike comes after a series of attacks in Israel left seven dead and 25 injured. The attacks began on a highway near the resort town of Eilat, where gunmen fired on a bus and fired a rocket at a car. Several minutes later, explosives were detonated near a military patrol traveling along the border with Egypt. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the attack “reflects the weakening of Egypt's hold in the Sinai and the broadening of activities by terror elements." Hamas in Gaza denied responsibility, but said it would fight back if Israel attacked it. 

Last week's British rioters were mostly young, unemployed, and impoverished young people, the Guardian data project determined Thursday. While Prime Minister David Cameron said earlier this week that the riots were “not about poverty,” an analysis of court data showed that 41 percent of rioters were from one of the top 10 percent of the most deprived areas of the country, and 66 percent of rioters were from neighborhoods that became poorer between 2007 and 2010. Researchers also found that in the worst-affected areas, youth unemployment and child poverty are above the national average. While many of the rioters attacked their own neighborhoods in London, the data suggested the suspects traveled to cities like Manchester and Birmingham to spread the unrest.