Mark Memmott

There's word from the wife of first-man-on-the-moon Neil Armstrong that he's "doing great" after cardiac bypass surgery on Tuesday, NBC News reports.

And that's good, tweets second-man-on-the-moon Buzz Aldrin, because he and Armstrong have "agreed to make it [to] the 50th Apollo Anniv in 2019."

Armstrong turned 82 on Sunday.

There were 361,000 first-time claims for unemployment insurance last week, the Employment and Training Administration says. That's down 6,000 from the week before (that previous week's total was revised up by 2,000).

Claims have stayed in a range between 350,000 and 400,000 all year. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, has also varied little: it's low this year has been 8.1 percent and the high has been 8.3 percent.

The numbers keep rising in the Philippines, where monsoons have overwhelmed Manila and other areas.

According to the country's disaster response agency

-- The number of people affected by the devastating rains, flooding and landslides has grown to 2.1 million, up from 1.2 million on Wednesday.

As Syrian President Bashar Assad today chose a replacement for the prime minister who defected earlier this week, there were conflicting reports about just what's happening in the key northern city of Aleppo.

As we said two weeks ago, China's state-controlled media had already concluded that Gu Kailai was guilty of murder even before any sort of a trial.

Today in central China the wife of once-prominent politician Bo Xilai got her day in court.

Literally.

So, a bear walks into a candy shop.

No, we're not starting a bad joke.

The all-red map tells the story.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:

Wade Michael Page, the man authorities say killed six people at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin on Sunday, appears to have "died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head," FBI Special Agent in Charge Teresa Carlson told reporters in Milwaukee this morning.

After a Oak Creek, Wis., police officer shot Page in the stomach, she said, video from the scene appears to show Page taking his own life.

Update at 5:11 p.m. ET. Back-ToBack:

Sunday's attack on a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, which left six people and the gunman dead, has for many of us opened a window on a religion, a culture and a people we know little about.

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Flooding In Philippines Forces 400,000 To Evacuate; 16 Deaths Reported.

-- Situation In Sinai Is 'Extremely Dangerous' As Egypt Moves Against Militants.

Other news:

The scope of the flooding in Manila and other parts of the Philippines due to torrential rains in recent days is daunting.

According to the country's disaster response agency:

-- 1.2 million people are in affected areas.

-- Nearly 400,000 have fled to evacuation centers or homes of friends or relatives.

-- At least 16 deaths have been attributed to flooding or landslides.

The news that Egypt's military has attacked groups of what it says are "Islamist militants" in the Sinai with missiles from aircraft and shells fired from tanks underscores how "extremely dangerous" the situation has quickly become along that nation's border with Israel, NPR's Leila Fadel said earlier today on Morning Edition.

After the July 20 mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., there were calls to focus as much or more on the victims and their stories as on the gunman.

As its stock tumbled today following word that New York State regulators have labeled it a "rogue institution" that allegedly hid about 60,000 secret transactions involving $250 billion in Iranian funds, Britain's Standard Chartered Bank strongly denied the accusations.

It "rejects the position or portrayal of facts as set out in the order," the bank said.