LAQUINTA, Calif., Dec. 5 -- James Nitties and Glen Day shared the lead Friday midway through the six-round PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament in California.

Nitties went into the third round with the lead by himself and stayed atop the standings by firing a 3-under 69. Day, who won a PGA Tour event in 1999 and finished 15th on the money list in 1999, stormed through the field with a 64.

That left the co-leaders at 15-under 201. Geoffrey Sisk was alone in third at 203.

The low 25 finishers and ties will earn their way onto the PGA Tour next year. The Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course and Stadium Course at PGA West are home to the event. Every competitor will play each course three times.

LAQUINTA, Calif., Dec. 4 - Australian James Nitties shot a 9-under 63 Thursday that put him one shot in front after two rounds of the six-day PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament in California.

Nitties completed 36 holes of the grueling and pressure-packed event at 12-under 132.

Robert Garrigus and Harrison Frazar shared second at 133. Nitties, Garrigus and Frazar began the day tied for 36th place and shot to the top of the leaderboard.

On Sunday, NASA's space shuttle Endeavour, made a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The 124th space shuttle mission and the 22nd flight for the Endeavour were marked by the STS-126 mission. It gave astronauts a chance to repair parts of the International Space Station (ISS), so it can house six crew members on a long-term missions next year.

STANFORD, Calif., Dec. 3  -- A U. S. geneticist says he has created an online database that can, without charge, provide scientists around the world with a tool for protein analyses.

Stanford University School of Medicine Associate Professor Arend Sidow recently launched his bioinformatics tool, which "enlists evolution as the guide to determining the role different proteins play in a wide array of organisms."

The database called "ProPhylER" enables a researcher studying a protein, or the gene coding for it, to more easily determine how it works and whether something might go wrong if the gene has a mutation.

SAN LUIS OBISPO , Calif., Dec. 3  -- A fraternity chapter at a California university has been suspended following the allegedly alcohol-related death of a freshman pledge.

Carson Starkey, 18, of Austin, Texas, a student at California Polytechnic State University, was found unconscious at an off-campus house early Tuesday, The San Luis Obispo Tribune reported. He died at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center.

Starkey was a pledge in Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Both the university and the fraternity's national organization have suspended the chapter pending an investigation into the young man's death.

On Sunday afternoon, U.S. space shuttle Endeavour landed safely in California following a 16-day trip. The space shuttle had to make a landing here since unfavorable weather conditions in Florida prevented the shuttle from landing in its home base in Cape Canaveral.

Around 1:20 p.m. local time (2120 GMT), two sonic booms were heard by the residents across Southern California when Endeavour broke the sound barrier under the sunny sky since it was gliding into local airspace en route to Edwards Air Force Base, more than 150 kilometers north of Los Angeles.