Blake Larson, president of ATK Aerospace Group, gave no details on the size and scope of the contract, but told Reuters the deal was "certainly substantial".

"It further enhances and expands other commercial elements of our propulsion business," Larson said. ATK is seeking to take on more commercial projects to diversity its portfolio at a time when the U.S. military budget is set to flatten or decline.

There was no immediate comment from Orbital Sciences.

Allen's Stratolaunch Systems tapped Orbital Sciences in June to develop the new transport system which will use a large aircraft to launch satellites, cargo and possibly humans, into space.

Stratolaunch plans to launch test flights in 2016, and may fly its first mission in 2017 or 2018.

ATK said it would provide the first and second stage propulsion for the Air Launch Vehicle. The company will also design and develop and flight hardware for initial Stratolaunch missions.

ATK has built more than 1,600 commercial solid rocket motors for a wide array of launch vehicles, including Orbital Sciences' Pegasus, Taurus, Minotaur and Antares launch vehicles.

In an announcement on its website, Facebook said the feature would be available on its mobile pages for more than 20,000 OpenTable restaurant customers across North America.

It wasn't immediately clear if Facebook would receive any commission from OpenTable bookings.

More consumers are accessing Web services using smartphones and Facebook has been adapting its business to benefit from the trend.

The company posted a net loss of $11.5m (£7.4m) compared to a profit of $33.2m a year earlier, it said in a statement.

Many analysts were expecting a net profit.

Sina's micro-blogging service has more than 500 million users, with many increasingly looking to access services on mobile devices.

The service has become an important forum for the exchange of opinions and information in China, however, it has not generated huge revenues for Sina.

The company also faces increased competition from rival Tencent, which has launched a hugely popular mobile messaging service called WeChat.

In April, Sina looked to compete by way of a deal with China's largest e-commerce company Alibaba, giving them 18% stake in its Sina Weibo micro-blogging service for $586m. The partnership is expected to generate revenue from advertising and social commerce services for Sina.

However, that meant a one-time charge of $27.1m in stock-based compensation, in the second quarter.

The birthday of one of Latin America's most iconic revolutionary figures has been a low key celebration in recent years. A choral concert in his honor at the Jose Marti national monument in Havana on Monday evening was the only official event planned.

Castro goes about his daily activities out of the public eye, and how much influence the retired commandante still wields is unknown. He emerges every once in a while to reassure his followers that he is very much around, frustrating those who wish he was not.

"No one believes anymore that Fidel has any real influence over day-to-day policy," a western diplomat said, "but that doesn't mean he is never consulted on big questions or that when he comes out it isn't important."

The government has staged just three media events this year for Castro: first, to vote in January for National Assembly deputies and chat with local reporters; then, in February, to attend the new parliament's opening session where his brother's possible successor, 53-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel, was named first vice president, and more recently, to inaugurate a school near his home on the outskirts of Havana.

Photos of a frail-looking Castro meeting with visiting dignitaries are occasionally published, as well as some of his writings, though far fewer than his once frequent "Reflections," on global topics.

The once-towering, broad-shouldered man is now stooped. He has trouble walking, and his famed booming oratory has softened to a near whisper. It is a transformation which brought tears to two women interviewed for this story.

Castro, now referred to as "the historic leader of the revolution," lives in a modest home on the western outskirts of Havana with his wife, Dalia Soto del Valle, near his sons and grandchildren, and where he studies, writes and receives visitors.

Cubans who have seen Fidel up close on one of his occasional ventures away from home report he remains lucid and in relatively good shape for a man who was at death's door in 2006 after undergoing repeated abdominal surgeries and reportedly having part of his colon removed.

Booker, a Democrat, holds a strong lead in public opinion polls, with a 37-point edge over his nearest challenger among likely Democratic voters in one recent survey.

But with the primary being held amid the summer vacation season, voter turnout will have a significant impact on the actual results, said David Redlawsk, a professor of political science at Rutgers University and director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling.

"In this election, it's dramatically difficult to figure out who a likely voter is. Half the state's down the shore," Redlawsk said.

The concern, and controversy, over the timing of the election emerged promptly after the Senate seat came open with the death in June of Senator Frank Lautenberg at age 89. The liberal Democrat had been elected to the Senate five times.

To fill the seat, Republican Governor Chris Christie called the August 13 primary and set the special election for October 16, three weeks ahead of the November 5 general election when he is seeking re-election.

Democrats charged that the two fall elections should have been scheduled for the same day but that Christie was avoiding being on the same ballot as Booker, who could attract both strong Democratic and minority turnout.

Also seeking the Democratic party's nomination on Tuesday are Representative Frank Pallone, who has polled in second place, Representative Rush Holt and state Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver.

But they have found little traction against the well-funded and well-known Booker, considered a rising political star.

The Newark mayor has enjoyed the support of celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and he has made himself a presence on social media with a prolific Twitter account and penchant for responding to constituent requests.

He once rushed into a burning building to help save a woman from the smoke and flames in her apartment.

"Famously willing to run after a mugger or into a burning building, and to move into the projects and play late-night basketball with kids there, the Rhodes scholar and Stanford- and Yale-educated lawyer grabbed headlines but also restored a sense of hope to the neglected city," the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote in its endorsement of Booker.

A proposed resolution by Senator Mark Leno, President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and others urges the California Public Employee Retirement System, or CalPERS, and the California State Teachers Retirement System, to halt investments in Russia until the issue is resolved.

CalPERS, the largest employee pension system in the nation, has $266 billion invested around the globe, of which $1.4 billion is invested in Russia.

The nonbinding resolution, which must be passed by the full Senate, protests a ban on same-sex couples from adopting Russian children, and a law prohibiting gay "propaganda."

The measures are part of the conservative course taken by President Vladimir Putin on social issues since his return to the Kremlin in May 2012.

Critics say the propaganda law effectively disallows all gay rights rallies and could be used to prosecute anyone voicing support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals.

"The resolution condemns Russia's official attack on the LGBT community," Leno said in an interview. "It also calls upon the president and Congress and the State Department to encourage the decriminalization of homosexuality in all countries."

The resolution additionally asks the International Olympic Committee to demand a written promise that gay athletes will not be affected by the propaganda law when the games are held in the Russian city of Sochi next year.

CalPERS said in a statement on Monday it always strives for responsible investing.

"CalPERS is a strong defender of human and civil rights across the globe," the statement said. "CalPERS will continue its prudent review of all investments and will consider current developments as it abides by all applicable laws."

Anger at the Russian laws has been building for months among gay rights activists and others in the United States.

Last month activists and Seattle-based sex advice columnist Dan Savage called for a boycott of Russian vodka in response to anti-gay violence and the restrictive laws.

Soon after, gay rights activists in New York City dumped vodka onto the street to protest the Russian laws, and a growing number of gay bar owners across the United States vowed to stop pouring Russian vodka.

The company's shares, which have lost a third of their value this year, rose as much as 4 percent in premarket trading.

Ackman, whose Pershing Square Capital Management owns about 18 percent of J.C. Penney, has been embroiled in a public battle with the retailer after he aired his concerns about the course of the company and the performance of its top management.

Ackman has demanded the ouster of Chairman Thomas Engibous and the replacement of interim Chief Executive Myron Ullman.

"At this time, I believe that the addition of two new directors and my stepping down from the board is the most constructive way forward for J.C. Penney and all other parties involved," Ackman said in a statement released by the company on Tuesday.

J.C Penney said retail industry veteran Ronald Tysoe would join its board and that it would appoint another director soon.

Tysoe spent 16 years as vice chairman of Federated Department Stores Inc, now Macy's Inc, and currently on several other boards.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that as part of the negotiations over board composition, Ackman's effort to immediately remove Ullman would be put on hold. (link.reuters.com/bez32v)

The public battle between Penney and Ackman escalated late last week with the hedge fund manager demanding the ouster of Engibous as well as Ullman. Ackman had demanded that Ullman be replaced within the next 30 to 45 days.

Ackman's resignation may be a victory in short term for Ullman and the board but will give Pershing Square more latitude to begin selling its big stake in the company.

It also remains to be seen what other large investors do if Ullman remains at helm for an extended time.

So far, the other large investors have held off on making changes to their holdings.

Soros Fund Management LLC, backed by billionaire financier George Soros, is holding on to its 7.9 percent stake in Penney, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Another large Penney investor, Glenview Capital Management, also appears to be sitting tight on its "passive" 4 percent stake in the retailer.

A person familiar with the hedge fund led by Larry Robbins said the firm had not taken any sides in the public dispute between Ackman and Penney's board.

Intelligence sources in India believe that a botched suicide bombing of an Indian consulate in Afghanistan, which was followed within days last week by a lethal cross-border ambush on Indian soldiers in disputed Kashmir, suggest that the new campaign by Islamic militants may already be underway.

Members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant outfit in Pakistan, the group blamed for the 2008 commando-style raid on Mumbai that killed 166 people, told Reuters they were preparing to take the fight to India once again, this time across the region.

And a U.S. counter-terrorism official, referring to the attack in Afghanistan, said "LeT has long pursued Indian targets, so it would be natural for the group to plot against them in its own backyard".

Given the quiet backing - or at least blind eye - that many militant groups enjoy from Pakistan's shadowy intelligence services, tensions from a new militant campaign are bound to spill over. Adding to the volatility, the two nations' armies are trading mortar and gunfire across the heavily militarized frontier that divides Kashmir, and accusing each other of killing troops.

Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan have fought three wars since independence in 1947 and came close to a fourth in 1999. The tension now brewing may not escalate into open hostilities, but it could thwart efforts to forge a lasting peace and open trade between two countries that make up a quarter of the world's population.

"With the Americans leaving Afghanistan, the restraint on the Pakistani security/jihadi establishment is going too," said a former top official at India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the external intelligence arm.

"We are concerned about 2014 in either scenario. If the jihadis (Islamist militants) claim success in Afghanistan, they could turn their attention to us. Equally, if they fail, they will attack in wrath."

In a statement released before the market opened on Monday, the company said board member Timothy Dattels, an investment banker and former Goldman Sachs executive, will chair the new committee, which will also include Blackberry Chief Executive Thorsten Heins.

"Given the importance and strength of our technology, and the evolving industry and competitive landscape, we believe that now is the right time to explore strategic alternatives," Dattels said in a statement.

BlackBerry pioneered on-your-hip email with its first smart phones and email pagers. But it has struggled to compete against the likes of Apple Inc and phones using Google Inc's Android operating system, and its new BlackBerry 10 smartphones have failed to gain traction.

Reuters last week quoted sources familiar with the situation as saying BlackBerry was considering going private to give it some breathing room as it works through its turnaround.

BlackBerry shares rose 9.4 percent in premarket trading.

"While a change in structure could result in a higher stock price in the near term, we do not envision any changes that would help BlackBerry reverse the significant smartphone share loss or rapid decline in service revenues," said Tim Long, an analyst at BMO Capital markets.

Heins said he was pleased with the progress that has been made and still sees compelling long-term opportunities for the BlackBerry 10. He said the company will continue a cost-cutting drive that has already shrunk the company considerably.

Dattels is a senior partner at private equity firm TPG Capital and a former top investment banker at Goldman Sachs. His appointment to BlackBerry's board last year sparked a flurry of speculation that the company might consider a leveraged buyout or going private.

Dattels' nomination to the board came in June 2012, shortly after BlackBerry hired JPMorgan and RBC Capital Markets to help it evaluate strategies, including a possible overhaul of its business model, as well as other moves like expanding the BlackBerry platform through partnerships and licensing deals.

Fairfax Financial Chairman and Chief Executive Prem Watsa said on Monday that he would resign from the BlackBerry board due to potential conflicts of interest. Watsa said Fairfax has "no current intention" of selling its Blackberry shares.

BlackBerry's new line of devices hit store shelves this year just as the high-end smartphone segment had begun to show signs of saturation. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd recently reported results that fell shy of expectations, while Apple earlier this year reported its first quarterly profit decline in more than a decade.

The issue affects some Android "wallet" apps, the organisation said, including Bitcoin Wallet and BitcoinSpinner.

To protect an Android wallet, the developers said users must update their apps once a new version was available. The news came as a US banking regulator ordered companies to co-operate with a probe into the way Bitcoin is used. Bitcoin said the wallet problem had to do with Android's ability to generate sequences of secure random numbers needed to keep the wallets safe. Analysts say Android's SecureRandom Java program sometimes repeats the number sequences, which must be unique in order to keep each Bitcoin secure.

Members of a Bitcoin forum have suggested that the equivalent of thousands of US dollars may have already been stolen.

Number sequences

"Because the problem lies with Android itself, this problem will affect you if you have a wallet generated by any Android app," the Bitcoin statement said on Sunday.

The issue affects only programs where the number sequences - or private keys - are controlled on the user's device.

For wallet apps that were vulnerable, Bitcoin said it would be necessary to change keys. This involves "generating a new address with a repaired random number generator and then sending all the money in your wallet back to yourself", according to the Bitcoin statement.

Some of the affected apps were in the process of updating their wallet apps to fix the problem, including Bitcoin Wallet, BitcoinSpinner, Mycelium Wallet and blockchain.info, Bitcoin said.

But experts say virtual currencies could face ongoing problems of a similar nature because of the way they have been designed.

Dr Joss Wright, a research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, said that cryptographers relied heavily on a computer's ability to generate random numbers in order to keep information secure. But, he added, that computers did not always do this reliably.

"Choosing good random numbers is the key issue," Dr Wright said. "If the random numbers can be predicted by somebody else, this could lead to all sorts of security problems."

Meanwhile, The New York Department of Financial Services has told about two dozen firms associated with Bitcoin it wants information on anti-money-laundering programmes, consumer protection measures and investment strategies, .

The newspaper said there were concerns that virtual currency companies did not comply with money transfer rules and the state of New York was considering legislation aimed specifically at virtual currencies.

The Facebook (FB) chief operating officer and author of the much buzzed-about "Lean In" sold nearly 2.4 million shares of the social network's stock last week at an average price of $38 per share, according to a regulatory filing. It amounts to about $91 million.

Sandberg is using a pre-arranged trading plan, which means she has no control over the specific timing of her sales. Such plans are a common way for top executives to cash in on a portion of their holdings while avoiding accusations of insider trading.

Sandberg has sold Facebook shares several times in the past year. Last year alone, she cashed out around $50 million in the months after Facebook went public in May. Her move this time came just a week after Facebook shares rose above $38 a share Wednesday for the first time since the social network went public in May 2012. The stock has clawed back from a low $17.55 in September.

But Facebook shares soared after the company blew past earnings estimates last month. Shares have climbed nearly 50% in the last month. Sandberg has periodically sold small portions of her holdings since the stock went public, but she still has plenty left. What she sold this week represented only about 5% of her holdings.

After selling 30.2 million shares during Facebook's IPO, CEO Mark Zuckerberg hasn't sold any more of his holdings. Last September, Zuckerberg said in a filing that he had no intention of selling any shares for at least 12 months.