Young immigrants across the U.S. reacted with disbelief and exhilaration over the weekend as they received the news of President Obama’s executive order to stop deporting immigrants brought to the U.S. when they were children. “I started shaking,” said Cindy Nava of Santa Fe, N.M., who called a lawyer to confirm the news. Others expressed excitement that the move would allow them to pursue their higher-education goals without constant fear of the law. Young Latino activists, however, were more skeptical. “This is politics again,” said Dulce Guerrer, an activist who has been arrested protesting Obama’s harsh deportation policies. “They’re just trying to win the Latino vote.”

At least 26 people were killed when two car bombs exploded in Baghdad Saturday. More than 100 have died in Iraq’s capital this week as a result of bombings directed at a Shiite pilgrimage. One of the explosions went off near the shrine to Imam Moussa al-Kadhim, an eighth-century saint. The shrine is in a heavily guarded area to which hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims flock each year. This weekend’s bombings, clearly directed at Shiites, are believed to be coming from Sunni militants, with the help of al Qaeda—attacks aimed to challenge Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government and suggest a reigniting of regular violence between the two Muslim sects that resulted in Iraq’s near civil war a few years ago.

The United Nations announced Saturday that it was putting a stop to the rounds being made by its observers in Syria, suspending their activities and patrols there, because of escalating violence. Maj. Gen. Robert Mood issued a statement saying that the bloodshed is posing significant risks to the U.N. observers and is creating a difficult environment for them to carry out their mission. Mood said observers will stay in their current locations “until further notice” as the suspension is reviewed on a daily basis. They will not be conducting patrols of any nature during the suspension, the statement noted.

The most destructive wildfire in Colorado history has blazed through the state since June 9, burning 85 square miles of land and leaving 181 homes destroyed as of Saturday. The fire was sparked by lightning and required more than 1,500 personnel to help contain it one week later. Though the area is expected to remain hot and dry for days to come, firefighters have been able to contain the blaze at a critical point against further growth. So far 1,187 of the 3,000 evacuation notices sent out since the fire began have been lifted. Fire officials estimate the cost of the wildfire’s damage to be $9.1 million. “We’re going to continue to work to make our forests more resilient,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack while meeting with fire managers in Ft. Collins Saturday. “We’re going to continue to ensure that adequate resources are provided for fighting fires, and we are going to continue to make sure that we encourage appropriate stewardship of our forests.”

A stage technician was killed Saturday evening when a stage structure at Toronto’s Downsview Park collapsed during setup, just hours before Radiohead was set to perform. Three other were injured: one was in serious condition, while the other two were treated for minor injuries and released. The collapse involved the metal scaffolding that holds the band’s amplifiers and video screens. The venue tweeted that the concert would be canceled, and shocked fans returned to their cars as the news spread.

Finally! More than two decades after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and after serving 24 years under house arrest in her home country of Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi delivered her acceptance speech in Oslo on Saturday. “Often during my days of house arrest I felt as though I were no longer a part of the real world,” Suu Kyi said in her speech to the Norwegian Nobel Committee. But the prize committee’s decision to give her the award in 1991 “made me real once again,” she said. Burma’s foremost opposition leader and the daughter of an assassinated independence activist, Suu Kyi said she vowed in her isolation that Myanmar’s pro-democracy forces “were not going to be forgotten.”

Egyptians face a choice, of sorts. Voters in the country lined up early on Saturday for the first of two days of elections in which the country will choose between Hosni Mubarak’s former prime minister and a Muslim Brotherhood candidate. Members of the ruling military party worked to shore up their own influence before the vote Friday, and the generals who have governed the country since a popular uprising ousted Mubarak last year released a statement saying that they would ensure a fair vote. State-run media reported Saturday that Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi had formally dissolved the parliament. The generals seem concerned about a threat to their power from the Muslim Brotherhood, however, and on Thursday Egypt’s highest court issued an order to disband the legislature, which is dominated by the Brotherhood.

Saudi Arabia’s 89-year-old King Abdullah is looking for an heir again Saturday after Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz al-Saud passed away in Geneva. The country’s interior minister and the next in line to the throne, Nayef was thought to be 78. Nayef was only made crown prince in October of last year, however, after his brother, Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, passed away. The line of succession in Saudi Arabia is still from brother to brother, passing among the many sons of King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, who established the modern Saudi kingdom. A statement from the king said that Nayef will be buried on Sunday following a prayer service in the holy city of Mecca.

An avalanche slid down Mount McKinley around 2 a.m. Thursday morning, leaving four Japanese climbers dead. The National Park Service confirmed Saturday that the climbers, ranging in age from 50 to 64, were dead. Those killed were part of a five-person Miyagi Workers Alpine Federation expedition who were descending an area called Motorcycle Hill when the avalanche swept them downward. Only one climber, 69-year-old Hitoshi Ogi, survived the fall with minor injuries.

After 15 months in outer space, an unmanned space craft developed by the Air Force came softly back to Earth on Saturday, landing in California. The X-37B, a space vehicle about which the government and military have said little to date, is the second such craft to enter space and return as part of the Air Force’s program. “The return capability allows the Air Force to test new technologies without the same risk commitment faced by other programs,” Col. Tom McIntyre, manager of the X-37B program, told the Associated Press. “We’re proud of the entire team’s successful efforts to bring this mission to an outstanding conclusion.” The military is using its two X-37B vehicles to test space technologies, including a classified cargo about which little is known.

The 91-year-old Duke of Edinburgh returned to daily life as a royal on Saturday, taking in a military flyover in his first public appearance since he went to the hospital with a bladder infection weeks ago. Prince Philip, the queen’s husband, had weathered earlier health scares, but this one caused him to miss some of the festivities for Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee. The event Saturday marked the queen’s birthday. At the time of Philip’s hospitalization, performer Elton John joked that the prince was only feigning illness to get out of having to attend a planned concert for the jubilee celebrations, saying, “He hates pop music—anything to get out of a pop concert.”

They’re a "warning." That’s what Russia’s head arms trader on Friday called the high-tech killing gear that Russia is shipping to Syria to prevent other countries from getting involved as the situation continues to deteriorate. “I would like to say these mechanisms are really a good means of defense,” said Anatoly P. Isaykin, who runs the company Rosoboronexport. “This is not a threat, but whoever is planning an attack should think about this.” Fears over possible Russian military involvement in the region grew earlier this week after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Russia was sending attack helicopters to aid President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Rupert Murdoch pushed Tony Blair toward war in Iraq, the ex-prime minister’s former head flak has written in the final installment of his diaries, it was revealed Saturday. Alastair Campbell’s diaries are being serialized in The Guardian. Campbell recalls that only a week before the British House of Commons voted in 2003 to send troops to Iraq, Prime Minister Blair received a call from the Australian-born media mogul, who pressed him to involve the U.K.’s military resources faster. “But [Tony Blair] and I felt it was prompted by Washington, and another example of their over-crude diplomacy,” Campbell writes. “Murdoch was pushing all the Republican buttons, how the longer we waited the harder it got.”

One step at a time. That’s how Nik Wallenda took his daring walk over the mists of Niagara Falls on Friday night, becoming the first man to walk across the gorge in 116 years. Wallenda, who wore a red shirt as he took his careful steps across the chasm, made the journey in 30 minutes and was greeted at the end by family and watched by a crowd of 100,000 on the Canadian side. Wallenda admitted that the vast expanse made it difficult to keep his balance. “Normally I can focus on that cable underneath me,” Wallenda told reporters. “But there was no way to do that. If I looked down at the cable there was water moving everywhere, and if I looked up, there was heavy mist.”

An enemy of the Pakistani Taliban seemed to be the target of a bombing Saturday that security officials said killed at least 26 people and wounded dozens more in the town of Landi Kotal. “The blast was so powerful that it was heard far and wide and caused damage to nearby buildings,” said Sher Mohammad Shinwari from the town, which sits close to the country’s border with Afghanistan. The bomb appeared to have been carried on a pickup truck that went off in a local market, and many produce vendors were among the dead and wounded. The area has seen many attacks from the group that identifies itself as the Taliban’s Pakistani wing, most of them aimed against government officials.

It was right back to the talking points for Mitt Romney. After President Barack Obama announced an immigration policy shift Friday that will stop the deportation of hundreds of thousands of young immigrants, Romney planned to work his way through Pennsylvania on Saturday. Romney seems determined to focus on the economy, brushing off Obama’s executive order in his comments to reporters yesterday and saying that it was a “short-term matter” that “can be reversed by subsequent presidents.” The Republican contender may also want to avoid scrutiny of his own stance on immigration—he’s said he would veto the DREAM Act if he were elected president, calling it a “handout.”

It is China’s boldest mission in space yet, and the first ever for a Chinese woman. Liu Yang, a 33-year-old female Chinese astronaut, was one of three astronauts who blasted off on Saturday. Their mission will take them to an orbiting module–an important milestone as China works toward building a space station. China launched its first astronaut into space in 2003, and since then has worked toward building a fully independent space program. The country, which was excluded from the International Space Station, plans to build its own permanent station by 2020. Wu Ping, a spokesman for China’s space program, called the launch of a woman into space “a landmark event.”

Greeks say they’ll head to the polls Sunday with a dark cloud over them, fearing that no political party may be up to the Herculean task of rebuilding the nation’s economy. “I would be very surprised if—ta da!—everything is clear” on Monday after the elections, said Vanguard Asset Management economist Peter Westaway. Greek voters could not choose a clear winner in the last round of elections in May, but this time around politicians have said they’ll make the compromises necessary to form a government. With talk of a Greek exit whispered around the continent, a deal may be a painful necessity to prevent further catastrophe.

Gaffe or gibe? On Saturday, Mitt Romney fumbled the president’s qualifications at a campaign stop in Weatherly, Pa. “He upon becoming governor–excuse me, president last time–governor might have been a better job for him to have started with,” Romney said. The former governor of Massachusetts picked up the ball and ran with it, adding, “I think it helps to have been in business before you actually start to run something in government. And then after you’ve done something in government, it helps to start perhaps a little lower level before you become president.” By the same token, Mitt, one might want to crack a smile before attempting standup.

Government documents disclose repeated instances of alleged misconduct at the Secret Service dating back to 2004, the Associated Press reported Friday. While all of the accusations reported in the 229-page document are not new, many of the accusations of solicitation of prostitution, illegal wiretapping, and other wrongdoing are detailed more closely than ever before. “The key question is whether these incidents indicate a larger cultural problem,” said Sen. Susan Collins, who has been investigating the prostitution scandal in Colombia that overshadowed a presidential visit in April.