A rover of "monster truck" proportions zoomed toward Mars on an 8½-month, 354 million-mile journey Saturday, the biggest, best equipped robot ever sent to explore another planet.

NASA's six-wheeled, one-armed wonder, Curiosity, will reach Mars next summer and use its jackhammer drill, rock-zapping laser machine and other devices to search for evidence that Earth's next-door neighbor might once have been home to the teeniest forms of life.

Moammar Gadhafi's forces tried to flee Tripoli with a sack of ancient Roman artifacts in hopes of selling them abroad to help fund their doomed fight, Libya's new leaders said Saturday as they displayed the recovered objects for the first time.

The director of the state antiquities department, Saleh Algabe, hailed the find of 17 pieces, mostly small stone heads, as an important recovery of national treasures.

Defending champion Roger Federer will take on France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Sunday's World Tour Final, looking to win the title for a record sixth time.

The showpiece, season-ending match at London's O2 Arena will be Federer's 100th final and he got there by beating David Ferrer 7-5, 6-3 in Saturday's semis, making it 12 wins from 12 matches against the Spaniard.

More than 100 people, including over a dozen Chinese government employees, have been sentenced over chemical-laced pork that caused a food safety scandal earlier this year, state media said Saturday. One person was given the death penalty.

An investigation into the safety of pork was launched in March after several farms in central Henan province were found using the fat-burning drug clenbuterol — a banned chemical that makes pork leaner but can be harmful to humans — in pig feed. A subsidiary of Shuanghui Group, China's largest meat processor, was one company selling tainted pork.

Pilots at Lebanon's national carrier are delaying outgoing flights to protest a decision by the company's administration to fire a pilot who is undergoing medical treatment.

The pilots union said in a statement on Friday that all Middle East Airlines flights departing between 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm to the Gulf will be delayed by two hours on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Novak Djokovic is in danger of being eliminated early from the ATP World Tour Finals after losing to fellow Serb Janko Tipsarevic 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 Friday in their final round-robin match.

The loss means the top-ranked Djokovic fell to 1-2 in group play and will miss the semifinals if Tomas Berdych beats David Ferrer in the late match, with the Spaniard having already advanced. Berdych would join Ferrer, Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the last four with a win.

Barcelona midfielder Andres Iniesta hasn't recovered from a leg injury and will miss Saturday's Spanish league match at Getafe.

Iniesta skipped Wednesday's 3-2 Champions League victory at AC Milan with a bruised left thigh, and coach Pep Guardiola left the Spain international out of Friday's squad for the trip to the Spanish capital.

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone says he is "not really" optimistic about the U.S. Grand Prix taking place next year and has set American organizers a Wednesday deadline to guarantee its long-term financial backing.

Organizers for the proposed race in Austin, Texas, say they have agreed to pay the sanctioning fee to secure a spot on next year's F1 calendar, but that's not enough for Ecclestone.

Atletico Madrid coach Gregorio Manzano says injured striker Radamel Falcao hasn't recovered in time to play in Saturday's Spanish league derby against Real Madrid.

Atletico was hopeful the €47 million-signing ($67 million) would recover from a leg muscle tear to play at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, but Manzano ruled out the Colombian international on Friday.

At a time when Germany is playing its best football in years, the organization behind it is trying to tackle problems threatening to tarnish its image.

Referees under probe by tax authorities and the plague of fan violence, especially in lower-tier leagues, are keeping the football federation busy half a year before Germany goes to the European Championship as a favorite for the title.