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spotlight in recent weeks when it was required to oversee the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria, but it has been working since the 1990s as the body that implements the Chemical Weapons Convention, the first international treaty to outlaw an entire class of weapons.
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Scott Carpenter, pioneering astronaut and 2nd American in orbit, dies at age 88
• DENVER (AP) -- Scott Carpenter conquered the heights of space, the depths of the ocean, and the darkness of fear. And in doing so he became the second American to orbit the Earth, powered by not just a rocket but an insatiable curiosity.
• "Conquering of fear is one of life's greatest pleasures and it can be done a lot of different places," he said.
• His wife, Patty Barrett, said Carpenter died Thursday in a Denver hospice of complications from a September stroke. Carpenter, who lived in Vail, Colo., was 88.
• Carpenter followed John Glenn into orbit, and it was Carpenter who gave him the historic sendoff, "Godspeed John Glenn." The two were the last survivors of the famed original Mercury 7 astronauts from the "Right Stuff" days of the early 1960s. Glenn is the only one left alive.
• In his only flight, Carpenter missed his landing by 288 miles, leaving a nation on edge for an hour as it watched live and putting Carpenter on the outs with his NASA bosses. So Carpenter found a new place to explore: the ocean floor.
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In dramatic SEAL rescue of Capt. Phillips in 2009, investigators never found stolen $30,000
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Dramatic accounts of the Navy SEALs rescuing the captain of an American cargo ship made headlines around the world in 2009. The military said SEAL snipers killed a trio of pirates in a tense standoff. Three shots, three kills. It was the lethal, coordinated precision that has made SEALs famous and feared.
• It was an unbelievable story, with a new retelling that hits the big screen Friday with Tom Hanks playing Capt. Richard Phillips. But the official version that unfolded in the Indian Ocean wasn't as tidy as Hollywood's, or the versions in Phillips' own book or in contemporaneous news reports. In fact, many more than three shots were fired, $30,000 went missing and the integrity of the SEALs was questioned.
• The unvarnished story begins on April 8, 2009. Four armed Somali pirates scur (Continued on page 43)
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