World/nation briefs

Postal Service to miss $5 billion payment The U.S. Postal Service is on the brink of default on a second multibillion-dollar payment. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said the agency will be forced to miss the $5.6 billion payment due to the Treasury on Sunday, its second default in as many months. Congress has left Washington until after the November elections, without approving a postal fix. He said the post office will hit a low point in cash next month but avert immediate bankruptcy due to a series of retirement incentives and employee reductions.

Only Canadian detainee is repatriated Omar Khadr, the only Canadian citizen held at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, was returned to Canada, the Pentagon and the Canadian government said. Khadr was 15 in 2002 when he was captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He pleaded guilty in 2010 to the killing of a U.S. sergeant, Christopher Speer, in a battle in 2002. Under the deal, he was to have served the first year of an eight-year sentence in U.S. custody before being returned to Canada to serve the balance of the sentence.

President: I approve every drone strike Yemen's president said that he personally approves every U.S. drone strike in his country and described the remotely piloted aircraft as a technical marvel that has helped reverse Al-Qaida's gains. It marked the first time that President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has publicly acknowledged his direct role.

Al-Shabab says it has fled key port city The Al-Shabab militant group withdrew from the port town of Kismayo, abandoning its last major stronghold and vowing to take the war underground. The fees that Al-Shabab imposed on all imports in the town helped finance its campaigns, which is why the group dug into Kismayo long after it had vacated other cities, including the capital. Al-Shabab, which has pledged allegiance to Al-Qaida, is now left with a tenuous grip on a few small towns.

WHO: SARS-related virus not easily spread A new strain of a virus related to SARS, which has killed one man in Saudi Arabia, does not appear to spread easily from person to person, the World Health Organization said. Still, it urged vigilance, saying that health workers should be on the lookout for anyone with acute respiratory syndrome who had been in the Middle East or in contact with a suspected case within the past 10 days. WHO said doctors should test for the virus only if the patient is severely ill.

Pope's once-trusted butler goes on trial The pope's once-trusted butler went on trial for allegedly stealing papal documents and passing them off to a journalist in the worst security breach of the Vatican's recent history. In its first hearing in the case, the tribunal threw out some evidence gathered during the investigation of Paolo Gabriele, who prosecutors said confessed to taking the documents because he wanted to expose the "evil and corruption" in the church.