A Soyuz spacecraft atop a towering rocket was placed into launch position Monday at Russia's manned-space facility in the freezing, windswept steppes of Kazakhstan ahead of a five-month mission for three astronauts to the International Space Station.

The craft was rolled out of its hangar on a flatbed train at exactly 7 a.m. in strict accordance with tradition and crawled for two hours at a walking pace to the launch pad. Colleagues, friends and relatives of the astronauts withstood temperatures as low as minus-30 C (minus-22 F), worsened by wind, to watch the procedure.

North Koreans across the country stopped in their tracks at midday Monday to silently honor former ruler Kim Jong Il, whose death one year ago swept his untested 20-something son to power.

Pyongyang construction workers took off their yellow hard hats and bowed at the waist as sirens wailed across the city for three minutes. The son, Kim Jong Un, presided over a solemn ceremony to reopen the sprawling granite mausoleum where his father's embalmed remains will lie in state near those of his grandfather, the nation's founder Kim Il Sung.

Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, tendered his official resignation on Sunday over fraud and breach of trust charges filed against him.

Lieberman's resignation goes into effect Tuesday. He said he hopes to take "the briefest possible leave."

Ford said Friday that it is talking to the government about the fuel economy of its hybrid cars after a report suggested they are falling short of targets.

Consumer Reports said last week that Ford's new C-Max hybrid didn't meet the published fuel economy of 47 miles per gallon (5 liters per 100 kilometers), averaging 38 mpg (6.2 liters per 100 kms) in the magazine's testing. Other hybrids — including the Ford Fusion and Toyota Prius V — have also fallen short in the magazine's tests.

Actress Amanda Bynes has resolved a misdemeanor hit-and-run case after entering into a civil settlement with other drivers.

Court records show Bynes entered a civil compromise to end the case and her attorney informed a Los Angeles court on Thursday. Bynes was charged with leaving the scene of accidents in April and August without providing the proper information.

The piano used for the song "As Times Goes By" in the classic 1942 film "Casablanca" has fetched more than $600,000 at auction.

The 58-key upright was sold to an unidentified buyer for $602,500 at Sotheby's New York on Friday.

A man took a bus from Wisconsin to Nashville, climbed a fence at a home linked to singer Taylor Swift on Friday and told police he was there to surprise a woman on her birthday, authorities said. He is jailed on a trespassing charge.

The singer, who is overseas, turned 23 Thursday. Court documents show 24-year-old Jacob Nicholas Kulke, of Marshfield, Wis., was arrested early Friday after climbing a fence and secured gate.

The Obama administration on Friday imposed a new air quality standard that reduces by 20 percent the maximum amount of soot released into the air from smokestacks, diesel trucks and other sources of pollution in its first major regulation since the Nov. 6 election.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said the new standard will save thousands of lives each year and reduce the burden of illness in communities across the country, as people "benefit from the simple fact of being able to breathe cleaner air."

A substitute teacher from California was found to be the only heir to a fortune of gold coins discovered by a cleaning crew in the home of a reclusive cousin who quietly stashed away a treasure of more than $7 million before he died this year.

A court hearing in Carson City is scheduled Tuesday, when a judge is expected to certify first cousin Arlene Magdanz as the lone heir to the treasure valued at $7.4 million found in the home of Walter Samaszko Jr., Carson City Clerk-Recorder Alan Glover told the Nevada Appeal.

To millions of people, the Christmas tree is a cheerful sight. To scientists who decipher the DNA codes of plants and animals, it's a monster.

We're talking about the conifer, the term for cone-bearing trees like the spruce, fir, pine, cypress and cedar. Apart from their holiday popularity, they play big roles in the lumber industry and in healthy forest ecosystems.