AFP/File - A landmark international convention banning cluster munitions was formally adopted by 111 countries here Friday, in a move organisers hope will stigmatise the lethal weapons as much as landmines.

AP - Jesse Litsch held down Oakland's offense just as he did in a shutout of Kansas City in his previous start.

AP - Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan defended his bombshell book about the Bush administration on Thursday, saying he didn't speak up against the overselling of war in Iraq at the time because he, like other Americans, gave the president the benefit of the doubt.

AP - U.S. authorities are investigating whether Chinese officials secretly copied the contents of a government laptop computer during a visit to China by Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez and used the information to try to hack into Commerce computers, officials and industry experts told The Associated Press.

AP - Army soldiers committed suicide in 2007 at the highest rate on record, and the toll is climbing ever higher this year as long war deployments stretch on. At least 115 soldiers killed themselves last year, up from 102 the previous year, the Army said Thursday.

AP - A top Clinton supporter in Michigan said Thursday the state Democratic Party's plan to split the convention delegates between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama is "fatally flawed."

AP - A woman told Cincinnati police that she heard a noise and then felt something cold on her feet. Police said a man crawled under a table at a University of Cincinnati library and used a syringe to spray saltwater onto the woman's shoes.

AP - In a crushing blow to the state's massive seizure of children from a polygamist sect's ranch, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Thursday that child welfare officials overstepped their authority and the children should go back to their parents.

Reuters - U.S. food prices will rise a stiff 9 percent a year through 2012, the largest increase since 1979 and the result of record-high crop prices, the head of an economic consulting company said on Thursday.

Reuters - The Texas Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a lower court decision which said the state had overstepped its authority when it removed about 460 children from a polygamist ranch.

AP - David Cook's "American Idol" win is already paying dividends on the music charts. The 25-year-old singer raked in 942,000 digital downloads in just a week, according to figures released Thursday by Nielsen SoundScan. The numbers are from the week ending Sunday.

AP - The military is reviewing soldiers' complaints that their standard ammunition isn't powerful enough for the type of fighting required in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army's highest-ranking officer said Thursday. But Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, said it was too soon to say whether the Pentagon will switch.

AP - England's enigmatic Stonehenge served as a burial ground from its earliest beginnings and for several hundred years thereafter, new research indicates.

Reuters - Acclaimed athletics coach Trevor Graham was convicted on Thursday of one count of lying to federal agents investigating the BALCO doping scandal.

Reuters - General Motors Corp said on Thursday about 19,000 U.S. factory workers -- just over a quarter of its American blue-collar work force -- had taken buyout offers to leave the automaker.

Reuters - When Ohio's Kent State University offered custodial staff the option of working four days a week instead of five to cut commuting costs, most jumped at the chance, part of a U.S. trend aimed at combating soaring gasoline prices.

AFP - Israel's foreign minister and Kadima party number two challenged Ehud Olmert's party leadership on Thursday, calling for an unprecedented primary amid demands he quit as premier over graft suspicions.

AFP - World leaders, including UN chief Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on Thursday hailed Baghdad's progress in combatting violence and stabilising Iraq.

Reuters - U.S. prosecutors preparing to try accused September 11 plotters expect criticism if they seek to use defendants' statements as evidence, because of the abuse of suspects during interrogation. But they say it will not deter them.

AP - A woman who spent nearly 60 years of her life in an iron lung after being diagnosed with polio as a child died Wednesday after a power failure shut down the machine that kept her breathing, her family said.

AP - Along Utah's Nine Mile Canyon lies what some call the longest art gallery in the world — thousands of prehistoric rock carvings and paintings of bighorn sheep and other wildlife, hunters wielding spears, and warriors engaged in hand-to-hand combat. But now, a dramatic increase in natural gas drilling is proposed on the plateau above the canyon, and preservationists fear trucks will kick up dust that will cover over the images.

AP - Gary Dourdan won't do time. The "CSI" co-star pleaded guilty to two of three counts of felony drug possession Wednesday but will not face prison following his drug arrest outside of Palm Springs last month, according to his lawyer. Dourdan could have served up to three years and eight months behind bars.

AP - Another win, another dismal crowd for the Tampa Bay Rays. Matt Garza pitched a career-high eight innings, leading first-place Tampa Bay over the Texas Rangers 5-3 Wednesday.

AP - With the nomination in sight, Barack Obama is willing to give rival Hillary Rodham Clinton the lion's share of the delegates from Florida and Michigan but is stopping short of her demand to fully recognize the two renegade states.

Reuters - Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan charges in an explosive new book that President George W. Bush used propaganda to sell the Iraq war, prompting angry rebukes from current and former Bush aides.

AP - In a shocking turnabout, the press secretary most known for defending President Bush on Iraq, Katrina and a host of other controversial issues produced a memoir damning of his old boss on nearly every level — from too much secrecy to a less-than-honest selling of the war to a lack of personal candor and an unwillingness to admit mistakes.

AP - No one could even remember a shark attack along this resort-studded stretch of Mexican coast popular with surfers and Hollywood's elite. Many of the large predators had been pulled from the ocean by fishermen. So when sharks attacked three surfers in less than a month, two fatally, it was unthinkable.

AP - Barring a stay of a historic California Supreme Court ruling, same-sex couples will be able to wed in the state beginning June 17, according to a state directive issued Wednesday.

AP - John McCain's nuclear proposals are largely in line with those of the unpopular President Bush, and even where the two disagree, the Republican presidential candidate has waffled.

AFP - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Wednesday demanded that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert quit over graft allegations or face early elections in a move that could put peace talks on hold.

Reuters - Military action against Iran would be a last resort but the United States and its allies have not done enough to promote the alternative, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said on Wednesday.

AFP - Political leaders in Nepal on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to abolish the Himalayan nation's 240-year-old Hindu monarchy and declare a republic.

Reuters - The grueling Democratic presidential nominating race moves on Saturday from the campaign trail to a Washington hotel, where party officials will hunt for a compromise over disputed contests in Michigan and Florida.

Reuters - Global warming will likely drain more water from the Great Lakes and pose added pollution threats to the region's vulnerable ecosystem, environmental groups said in a report issued on Wednesday.

Reuters - U.S. warships will soon leave waters near Myanmar if the junta does not allow the American military to deliver food, water and other aid to cyclone survivors, a U.S. commander said on Wednesday.

Reuters - Ehud Olmert's main coalition partner demanded on Wednesday the Israeli prime minister leave office over corruption allegations.

Reuters - A general-election race for the White House between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain would feature vastly different approaches on the thorniest political issues, from Iraq and diplomacy to taxes and health care.

Reuters - China has evacuated more than 150,000 people living below a swollen lake formed by this month's devastating earthquake amid fears it could burst and trigger massive flooding, state media said on Wednesday.

Reuters - Republican candidate John McCain edged further away from U.S. President George W. Bush on foreign policy on Tuesday even as he accepted Bush's help in raising much-needed campaign dollars for his White House bid.

AP - The U.S. is making "a big and continual push" to capture or kill al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, but his demise won't end the organization's menace, CIA Director Michael Hayden said Tuesday in an Associated Press interview. The CIA is equally interested in those jockeying to replace bin Laden in what he predicted will be a "succession crisis."

AP - The anguish of Hurricane Katrina should have ended for Gina Bouffanie and her daughter when they left their FEMA trailer. But with each hospital visit and each labored breath her child takes, the young mother fears it has just begun.

AP - The number of troops with new cases of post-traumatic stress disorder jumped by roughly 50 percent in 2007 amid the military buildup in Iraq and increased violence there and in Afghanistan.

AP - A glitch with a Mars orbiter relaying commands from Earth delayed plans for the Phoenix Mars Lander's second day of activities on Tuesday, NASA officials said.

Reuters - Democrat Barack Obama admitted on Tuesday he was wrong to say his uncle helped liberate the Nazis' Auschwitz concentration camp after Republicans said Soviet troops freed the camp.

AP - About 80,000 people were evacuated Tuesday from downstream of an unstable earthquake-created dam that is threatening to collapse, and troops rushed to carve a trench to drain the water before it floods the valley.

AP - John McCain's complex relationship with President Bush can be summed up with a simple saying: can't live with him, can't live without him.