Capto Veritas

The recent uptick in solar flares and other sun activity has been causing orbiting debris to fall faster, a NASA scientist reports.

Plasma arcs over the sun, Earth shines in high resolution, a colorful halo surrounds the moon, and more in the week’s best space pictures.

The Arab League’s monitoring chief warns that Syria has seen an escalation of violence in recent days, as the UN prepares to discuss the crisis.

The pace of US economic growth quickened to a 2.8% annualised rate in the three months to December, the Commerce Department says.

The Italian firm that owns the stricken cruise ship Costa Concordia reaches agreement on compensation with several Italian consumer groups.

A suicide car bomber kills at least 32 people and injures about 60 in a Shia district of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, with a funeral procession caught in the blast.

The Syrian army launches renewed assaults on the restive cities of Homs and Hama, activists say, as the UN prepares to discuss the conflict.

A European Parliament rapporteur has stood down in protest as a controversial anti-piracy agreement is signed by several countries.

The owner of a French breast implant maker at the centre of an international safety scare faces charges of “involuntary injury”, his lawyer says.

Spain’s unemployment figure passed the five million mark in the last quarter of 2011, official figures show.