Mission

When the White House sent a last-minute invitation for Asif Ali Zardari to attend the two-day NATO summit, they were taking a highly public gamble. Would sharing the spotlight with President Obama and other global leaders induce the Pakistani president to allow vital supplies to reach alliance troops fighting in Afghanistan? But long before the summit ended Monday, the answer was clear: No deal. Zardari's refusal to reopen the supply routes left a diplomatic blot on a summit that NATO sought to cast as the beginning of the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket roared to life before dawn at Cape Canaveral, Fla., today and blasted into space on a column of fire that lit the night sky for miles around. The nine-engine rocket lifted off at 3:44 a.m. EDT carrying a cone-shaped space capsule that's set to berth with the International Space Station later this week. SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is the first private company to embark on such a mission.

Reporting from San Juan Bautista, Calif. -- On the darkest day of the year, a hushed crowd in a dim church awaited a few minutes of sheer brilliance. It was just after dawn Wednesday, the day of the winter solstice. Outside the 200-year-old mission at the heart of tiny San Juan Bautista, Native American drummers sang, urging the sun to rise. Inside, dozens of parishioners rubbed the sleep from their eyes. A woman stood up and sang in cadences haunting and solemn — phrases in no known tongue, she said, but "the language of the heart.

You can draw a straight line, in terms of architectural history, from William Randolph Hearst'ssprawling estate in San Simeon to the corner of Broadway and 11th Street in downtown Los Angeles. It was at that downtown site in 1913 that Hearst commissioned architect Julia Morgan to design a headquarters for his Los Angeles Examiner newspaper, which he'd founded in 1903. Morgan produced one of the most remarkable designs of her prolific career, a 103,500-square-foot Mission Revival building draped with Italian and Moorish touches, including domes covered in yellow and blue tile.

London's annual Meltdown Festival is one of the U.K.'s hippest events. A specially selected curator invites artists he or she wishes to showcase, typically the more adventurous, the better. This year, free-jazz innovator Ornette Coleman assembled a stellar lineup of genre-defining and defying acts -- Patti Smith, James Blood Ulmer, the Roots, Baaba Maal and the Master Musicians of Jajouka, among them. Some of the strongest response, however, was reserved for a 76-year-old performance artist whose blood-curdling singing has been testing audiences' limits for decades.

As the clock ran out on the Arab League's observer mission in Syria, members found themselves largely confined to their hotels while the 22-member regional bloc fended off accusations of failure and wrestled with the problem of what to do next. The one-month mission was intended to determine whether the Syrian government was keeping its pledge to end its crackdown against a 10-month-old uprising. But from the start, there were widespread doubts about whether it had the resources and independence to do the job. The question as the deadline expired Thursday was whether an expanded but still limited mission was better than no mission at all. With no sign of a letup in the bloodshed, Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo on Sunday must decide whether to keep going.

The Arab League said Saturday that it was suspending its observer mission in Syria amid escalating violence that has left scores dead in recent days. The decision is the latest sign that the 10-month-old crisis in Syria is worsening as diplomats at the United Nations prepare to consider a league-backed plan calling on President Bashar Assad to relinquish power. In a statement, Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby cited the "critical deterioration of the situation in Syria and the continued use of violence" as the reason for suspending the monitoring operation.

I would hope that Shauna Snow was merely repeating some news service copy when she reported on "a U.S. Army unit that captured Hitler's Eagle's Nest as part of the D-day mission" (Morning Report, Dec. 2). The 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, was indeed at Normandy in June, and in April of '45 was in on the capture of the Berghof (Hitler's residence) and the Adler-Horst (Eagle's Nest or Tea House, which was the chateau above the Berghof), but Normandy to Bavaria and 10 months passage is quite a leap to be part of the same mission.

I enjoyed James Gilden's article ("On Top of the World in Wales, Aug. 4). As a youth I climbed extensively in Snowdonia. However, I do not accept that the 1921 British Everest expedition was unsuccessful. The leaders realized that reaching the summit was unlikely and that the expedition's primary mission would be to map the surrounding area and explore possible routes up the mountain. This was accomplished, with significant help from George Mallory. CHRISTOPHER OWEN La Crescenta

Volunteer Fred Purdy has been reelected as president of the Mission San Juan Capistrano Docent Society for a second year. The retired history teacher, who says he's "over 65," oversees 110 volunteer members of the society that guide visitors at the historic 221-year-old mission. The Laguna Niguel resident began working as a tour guide about three years ago, but he first stepped foot inside the old stone buildings as a boy in 1934.

As the United States finally begins to wind down its military presence in Afghanistan, is the Obama administration poised to replicate that intervention in Yemen? The administration insists it has no such plans, but it has been evident for months that it regards the Yemen-based group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as the most dangerous incubator of terrorist plots directed at America. And it is acting on that conviction. This week The Times reported that U.S. special operations troops, which were withdrawn from Yemen last year amid political turmoil in that country, have returned and are providing technical assistance to Yemeni forces.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan President Hamid Karzai, perhaps best known in the West for periodic well-aimed jabs at his NATO allies, is embarking on a determined charm offensive as he faces the prospect of seeing troops and, perhaps even more crucially, dollars slip away from his country. The Afghan government has long regarded the NATO alliance and its partners as a seemingly bottomless source of funding. But aides to Karzai say the president is heading to a landmark NATO summit in Chicago this weekend with a keen awareness of the financial pinch being felt from London to Tokyo.

The countdown has begun for SpaceX's historic mission to send a spacecraft into orbit to dock with the International Space Station.SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is due to launch its Falcon 9 rocket early Saturday from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in a demonstration for NASA. Officials of the space agency and SpaceX held a news conference Friday at the cape to discuss the mission.

The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa in Riverside has a special offer for active and veteran members of the U.S. military this month: $159 a night for a room that includes dinner for two and valet parking. It's a good discount off the usual rates -- and might make for a nice Memorial Day getaway. The deal: A Salute to Our Heroes package includes a room, dinner for two at the hotel's Bella Trattoria Italian Bistro and free valet parking. A military ID is required for this deal.

For the last half-century, space flight has been the domain of the world's superpowers. All that is set to change as soon as Saturday when SpaceX, the private rocket company in Hawthorne, will attempt to launch a spaceship with cargo into orbit and three days later dock it with the International Space Station. If successful, the mission could mean a major shift in the way the U.S. government handles space exploration. Instead of keeping space travel a closely guarded government function, NASA has already begun hiring privately funded start-up companies for spacecraft development and is moving toward eventually outsourcing NASA space missions.

What an appealing slice-of-life California town, an easy day trip by car or train. Come for the history, stay for the food. This restaurant-intensive ranch town is the oldest community in Orange County. If San Juan Capistrano - or SJC - had a dating profile it would say: "Self-deprecating, authentic, still likes a good time. " The bed. Choices here are limited, though a new hotel is on the way. Till then, you have the Residence Inn Marriott, with one- and two-bedroom suites starting at $179 (33711 Camino Capistrano; [949]

NASA is extending the Phoenix Mars mission again. The three-legged spacecraft has been digging trenches near the Martian north pole since landing on May 25, and its work was supposed to end this month. But NASA spokesman Dwayne Brown said Thursday that the space agency would invest about $6 million to keep the $422-million mission going through December. It's the second extension -- and possibly the last, because the lander may not survive the upcoming Martian winter.

I have been an R.N. at St. John's for over 28 years, and must respond to your article ("Operating Anew," Feb. 24) by saying that I was totally embarrassed by the nurse who remarked, "Why the hell would they hire me with 10 years' experience and five weeks of vacation a year over someone at entry-level pay?" I shall reapply for my former position to carry on the shared responsibility of mission (and) ministry which I have been so proud of, but, frankly, I hope someone who would respond in such a rough, unprofessional manner would not be rehired . (It's)

The fantastical murals of San Francisco's Mission District are an intriguing dialogue between artists and their city that you can easily experience on foot. On any given day in Clarion Alley, tourists from all over the world mingle with field-tripping students (and the homeless). Start at the Mission Street end of Clarion Alley, then exit at Valencia Street and head south (turn left). Check out the murals all the way to 20th Street. Typically, walk one or two blocks (east or west) to view.

NASA'sfirst hard look at the protoplanet Vesta has given scientists an unprecedented view of its makeup, terrain and history - and revealed that major activity on this ancient rock occurred far more recently than researchers had expected. Images sent back from NASA's trailblazing Dawn spacecraft reveal the full size of a massive crater in the southern hemisphere and indicate that it may have been made just 1 billion years ago, well after Vesta formed more than 4.5 billion years ago, according to one of half a dozen studies published in Friday's edition of the journal Science.