Argentina helps in rocket launch

SAO PAULO - Brazil and Argentina successfully launched a rocket into space yesterday in the first joint space mission by the two South American nations. The VS30 rocket, which carried experiments from both countries, blasted off from Brazil's Barreira do Inferno launch center in northern Rio Grande do Norte state, Brazil's Space Agency said. The rocket reached an altitude of 75 miles, and its journey - which lasted 9 minutes, 25 seconds - was "perfect," the agency said. (AP)

MEXICO CITY - Oil workers have capped a damaged oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico that spilled crude and natural gas for almost two months after a deadly high-seas collision, Mexico's state-owned oil company announced yesterday. At least 21 employees were killed in the Oct. 23 collision with a drilling rig during a storm. (AP)

CAIRO - Al Qaeda's number two official, Ayman al-Zawahri, said in a new video posted today that the United States is trying to hide its failures in Iraq and warned that the mujahideen there are increasing in strength. "We are seeing a triple failure for the Americans in Iraq," Zawahri said in the 90-minute videotape. (AP)

BOGOTA - A US woman was shot and killed as she vacationed with her Colombian husband in this South American country, in a robbery that netted $200 and a laptop computer, police said yesterday. Jean Oviedo, 37, arrived 10 days ago at the northeastern Colombian city of Bucaramanga with her three children and husband, said police General Alvaro Enrique Miranda. On Saturday night, two assailants burst into her husband's family home. (AP)