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through the red planet's atmosphere.
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Tropical Storm Ernesto swirls off Honduras as authorities warn of flood danger from rains
• TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) -- Tropical Storm Ernesto swirled along Honduras' northern coast early Tuesday, staying offshore and bringing the threat of torrential rains as it headed toward landfall as a possible hurricane near Mexico's border with Belize.
• Nicaraguan authorities moved some people from low-lying areas, while Honduran officials urged people along its Caribbean coast to stay alert.
• With Ernesto predicted to stay at sea while passing along Honduras' northern coast during the day, Honduran authorities were monitoring the storm but there were no immediate plans to evacuate people, Roberto Diaz, operations chief of the country's Contingencies Commission, said Monday night.
• "We don't think is necessary to evacuate people at this point," Diaz said. "We don't want to create collective panic ... and we think that ordering an evacuation would create hysteria that would affect the population more than the storm itself."
• Authorities sent enough food packages to the sparsely populated area to feed 600 families for two weeks, Diaz said.
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In tightly orchestrated China murder trial, authorities seek to keep corruption question out
• HEFEI, China (AP) -- The wife of a fallen Chinese leader goes on trial Thursday on charges of murdering a British businessman in a politically charged case that may have little to do with whether she really killed him.
• Instead, the trial of Bo Xilai's wife, Gu Kailai, is seen largely as a tightly managed way for the leadership to cauterize a political scandal that has embarrassed the Communist Party.
• "The men at the top have already made their decisions, and in conspicuous political trials like this, that's where the decision is made," said Perry Link, a Princeton University emeritus professor of East Asian studies. "So the trial, whatever the results and whatever the arguments, it will be theater, just theater."
• The scandal has drawn attention to bare-knuckled infighting that politicians prefer to keep behind closed doors -- particularly at a time when the government is pre (Continued on page 30)
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