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Landing on Mars is no walk in the park. It requires years of planning, thousands of engineers and, in the case of NASA's Curiosity rover, billions of dollars. NPR's Joe Palca has covered the last four successful landing missions and has some thoughts about process of getting to Mars.

"AJ" Boik will be remembered at a funeral today. Friends and family say the aspiring artist was never sad and always willing to help. Yousef Garbi, who survived, was shot in the head after first pushing a friend to safety.

The London Olympics are in full swing, after an opening ceremony Friday that was chock-full of historic and cultural imagery drawn from Britain's past. Critics are gushing over Queen Elizabeth's role in the spectacle — along with James Bond. But there is room for debate — especially among viewers here in the U.S.

Sliced and chopped apples shipped all over the U.S. by Ready Pac Inc., are recalled over concerns about Listeria found on plant equipment. So if you've been choosing apples over fries lately, you might want to hit pause.

State Department officials, testifying before Congress, acknowledge that security was inadequate in Benghazi before the deadly attacks in Libya. Sen. John Kerry, who was chairman of the Senate hearing, says the diplomatic corps needs more resources.

The cheapest place to make brushes these days is China. But there are still people pressing bristles into brushes in a factory in the Bronx, and in small plants across the country.

Two documents provide new details about the procedures the National Security Agency follows when sifting huge volumes of email. The Justice Department documents were made public by The Guardian newspaper. They help explain the steps the NSA must follow when it inadvertently comes across the communications of Americans.

Days before Google pulls the plug on its Reader RSS feed service, reality is sinking in for longtime users. And the market for free or low-cost replacements is growing, as Digg says its new reader is now ready. Other companies report a burst of new customers.

Wallenda put his circus family back on the map with his high-wire trip across Niagara Falls in 2012. Last week, it was a walk across a 1,500-foot gorge near the Grand Canyon. Of course he gets butterflies, he says, but there's no fear.

An internal audit of the spy agency turned up many cases of "unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the United States," The Washington Post reports. Documents supplied by "NSA leaker" Edward Snowden add new details to the scope of U.S. surveillance programs.