Arguably the most widely recognized structure in the world, the Eiffel Tower was designed to stand for only 20 years -- and some predicted it would collapse long before then.

Even as it was being built for the 1889 Universal Exhibition, a professor of mathematics sagely calculated that when the tower was two-thirds complete, its legs would buckle and the whole thing would come tumbling down, crushing workers and houses alike.

Chrysler Group said Tuesday it plans to build a new sport utility vehicle for Italy's Maserati in North America.

Chrysler/Fiat Chief executive officer Sergio Marchionne said he had approved a plan to build a sport utility vehicle for the ultra-high end Italian luxury brand at the Jefferson North Assembly plant in Detroit.

Filming on the latest James Bond movie will start later this year for release in November 2012, its producers said Tuesday after debt-ridden studio giant MGM was saved from financial oblivion.

The project, starring Daniel Craig as 007, was put on ice last April after Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was offered for sale to resolve its debt problems and stave off bankruptcy.

DNA in a pregnant woman's blood can reliably show whether her fetus has Down's syndrome, thus hugely reducing the need for invasive test procedures such as amniocentesis, research published on Tuesday said.

Down's syndrome, a major developmental disorder also called trisomy 21, occurs in around one in every 800 live births.

Spanish tenor Placido Domingo, who underwent surgery last year to remove cancerous polyp from his colon, Wednesday described performing at his age as a "marvel" as he turns 70 this month.

"To be in Madrid singing, with my family and friends, on such an important day for me is part of my birthday present," he told a news conference ahead of a special birthday performance in the Spanish capital.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to Washington Monday highlighted the difficulty G20 members face in questioning the dollar's supremacy among reserve currencies.

Sarkozy and his finance minister, Christine Lagarde, made a brief visit to the U.S. capital to sound out the White House and the Treasury on France's reform agenda as it heads the Group of 20 this year.

NASA said Tuesday it will aim to launch the space shuttle Discovery on February 24, after engineers found a way to shore up cracks on the external fuel tank that have delayed its final liftoff.

NASA engineers have been working since November to figure out why cracks were emerging on the 22-foot-long U-shaped aluminum brackets, called stringers, on the shuttle's external fuel tank.

Soldiers rushed to restore calm to parts of central Nigeria on Tuesday after 13 people were reported killed in an attack on a village and unrest flared in other areas, authorities said.

Central Nigeria has seen a wave of violence in recent weeks, including Christmas Eve bomb blasts and reprisal attacks that killed at least 80 people as well as clashes between Christian and Muslim ethnic groups.

At least 35 people have been killed in the riots that erupted over the weekend in Tunisia, the president of the International Federation for Human Rights said Tuesday.

"We have a list of the names of the 35," Souhayr Belhassen told Agence France Presse. "The total figure is higher. It's somewhere around 50, but that's an estimate."

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in southern Israel on Tuesday, causing no injuries, the Israeli military said.

The rocket was the latest in a salvo of projectiles fired from the coastal enclave in Israel, raising tensions along the border with Gaza and fears of a new Israeli incursion into the territory.