Reuters - A strong aftershock jolted southwest China on Sunday killing at least one person and injuring 400 others, state media said, nearly a fortnight after a big earthquake killed tens of thousands in the same area.

AP - Firefighters took advantage of cooler temperatures and calmer winds Saturday as they continued to fight a persistent wildfire in the Santa Cruz Mountains that has chewed through acres of centuries-old redwoods, destroyed at least 17 homes and displaced hundreds of people.

AP - Authorities checking on a car stranded in a field Saturday morning found two people killed by a powerful storm that raked the state a day earlier with at least 17 tornadoes.

Reuters - Colombia said on Saturday the top commander of the FARC rebel group Manuel Marulanda, known as "Sureshot," was dead.

Reuters - A classroom drama set in a tough Parisian school lifted the gloom in Cannes, giving the world's biggest film festival a much-needed boost after critics panned many of the main competition entries.

AP - Even with his team on a five-game losing streak, Mets manager Willie Randolph was able to joke about his job status.

Reuters - Lebanon's parliament is set to vote in army chief General Michel Suleiman as the country's 11th president on Sunday, filling a post left vacant for six months by a crisis that threatened a new civil war.

AP - After a nearly 10-month journey, a NASA spacecraft will land softly Sunday on the northern polar region of Mars, if all goes as planned.

AFP - Myanmar's failure to grant foreign aid workers unfettered access to cyclone devastated areas threatened Sunday to overshadow a vital conference aimed at securing billions of dollars for reconstruction.

AP - A tour helicopter crashed in rainy weather on an island off the Southern California coast Saturday morning, killing three people and injuring three others, a county sheriff's deputy said.

AP - Long hours, hard work and scant hope of succeeding may be the cause of Hillary Rodham Clinton's latest case of political tone-deafness.

AP - A British teenage actor playing a minor role in the upcoming "Harry Potter" film was stabbed to death during a brawl in London on Saturday, police said.

AP - The U.S. ambassador to Iraq said Saturday that al-Qaida's network in the country has never been closer to defeat, and he praised Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for his moves to rein in Shiite and Sunni militant groups.

Reuters - Democratic White House candidates made rare campaign stops in Puerto Rico on Saturday as Hillary Clinton's uphill challenge to secure the nomination was made even harder by controversy over her references to the 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy.

AP - The cracking of rifle fire silenced the twittering blue jays, blackbirds and killdeer.

AFP - Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai arrived home Saturday after a six-week absence vowing to end the near three-decade rule of veteran President Robert Mugabe in next month's election.

Reuters - The U.S. ambassador to Iraq praised Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Saturday for cracking down on Shi'ite militias and Sunni Arab militants and said al Qaeda in Iraq had never been closer to defeat.

AP - Jesse McGee points to trophies he won in local marathons. He mentions his work with youth and volunteer school programs. He praises his church's efforts to deliver scripture lessons to inmates.

Reuters - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited the epicenter of China's huge earthquake on Saturday, meeting victims and drawing an unspoken comparison with the sluggish aid efforts after a cyclone in neighboring Myanmar.

Reuters - There was "no time to lose" to help Myanmar's cyclone survivors after the secretive military government promised it would allow in more aid workers, disaster relief officials said on Saturday.

AP - State child welfare authorities on Friday appealed a stinging court ruling that said their seizure of more than 440 children from a polygamist sect's ranch was unjustified, but they also agreed to reunite 12 children with their parents while the case moves on.

AP - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton quickly apologized Friday after citing the June 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in defending her decision to keep running for the Democratic presidential nomination despite increasingly long odds.

Reuters - Republican presidential candidate John McCain's wife, Cindy, released her 2006 tax return under pressure on Friday, showing she paid $1.7 million in taxes on about $6 million in income.

Reuters - The Pentagon on Friday charged an accused al Qaeda training camp instructor with conspiracy and support of terrorism.

AP - Cindy McCain, who two weeks ago said she would never make her tax returns public, revealed Friday that she had a total income of more than $6 million in 2006.

AP - Health officials are warning New Yorkers to stay away from an illegal aphrodisiac made from toad venom after the product apparently killed a man.

Reuters - Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton drew a sharp rebuke from front-runner Barack Obama's campaign on Friday after she mentioned Robert Kennedy's assassination while explaining why she was remaining in the race for the party's nomination.

AP - The Bush administration is making the last preparations for what it hopes will be a fresh start in troubled disarmament talks with North Korea, with an official saying Friday that the reclusive regime appears ready to provide overdue details about its nuclear past.

AFP - South Africa made its first public apology Friday for anti-immigrant violence that has left more than 40 dead and 17,000 displaced, as unrest spread to seven of the country's nine provinces.

AFP - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Friday the eyes of the world were now on Myanmar after pushing the secretive military regime to accept a major relief effort for survivors of the cyclone disaster.

AP - Myanmar's ruling junta said Friday it will let foreign aid workers and commercial ships help survivors in the cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy Delta, but refused to relent on accepting aid from U.S., French and British military ships.

AP - As consumers began hitting the road Friday for the Memorial Day weekend, they faced the sobering reality that it now costs $87 to fill a Ford Explorer SUV, up $14 from last year, and $72 to fill a mid-sized Honda Accord, up $12.

Reuters - China has found what it termed 50 "hazardous sources of radiation" due to last week's earthquake, a senior official said on Friday, although he insisted the situation was under control.

AP - China's deadly earthquake may have saved the Beijing Olympics.

Reuters - South Africa's security chief accused rightwingers linked to the former apartheid government on Friday of fanning anti-foreigner violence that has spread to Cape Town, the second largest city and tourist centre.

Reuters - Republican John McCain was deemed by his doctors on Friday to be in sufficient good health to serve as president even as they reported a long history of skin cancer, colon polyps, kidney stones and dizziness.

Reuters - China and Russia on Friday condemned U.S. plans to set up a missile defense system that would include bases in eastern Europe viewed by Moscow as a threat.