AP - The American military launched a major offensive near the Syrian border on Saturday aimed at destroying al-Qaida in Iraq's ability to smuggle in foreign fighters, money and equipment. The feared insurgent group warned foreign diplomats to flee Iraq after announcing it would kill two kidnapped Moroccans.

Reuters - Yon Ok-ju likes pizza, spends weekends hanging out with her friends and worries about her exams.

AP - Vice President Dick Cheney made an unusual personal appeal to Republican senators this week to allow CIA exemptions to a proposed ban on the torture of terror suspects in U.S. custody, according to participants in a closed-door session.

Reuters - White House staffers will be required to attend briefings next week on ethics and the handling of classified information after the indictment last week of a senior administration official in the CIA leak probe, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.

AP - President Bush and Latin American leaders entered a final day of talks Saturday to debate the future of a hemisphere-wide free trade bloc, meeting behind an array of street barricades and armed security forces at a summit tarnished by violent street protests.

AP - President Bush once envisioned a huge free-trade zone stretching from the northern reaches of Canada to the tip of Argentina. But after years of negotiations, it appears his best hope of moving forward with his dream is with a huge gaping hole over the southern half.

AP - A Westmoreland County jury on Friday ordered a woman to pay $46,200 to her ex-boyfriend for gluing his genitals to his abdomen.

Reuters - About 3,500 U.S. and Iraqi soldiers launched a major offensive on Saturday in western Iraq to track down al Qaeda insurgents and make it safe for people to vote in December 15 elections, the military said.

Reuters - Underfunded aid agencies are struggling to head off a second wave of deaths in Pakistan as a bitter Himalayan winter closes in four weeks after a giant tremor killed more than 73,000 people.

AP - Bruce Bowen is defensive about his job. Just ask LeBron James. Bowen, San Antonio's main defender against James, helped hold the Cleveland star to 10 points over the final three quarters in the Spurs' 102-76 home victory over the Cavaliers on Friday night.

Los Angeles Times - The Cold War is back. Only this time it's being fought in Southern California's ice cream shops.

Los Angeles Times - PHOENIX — A stringent new voter identification law being put into effect in Arizona — designed to keep illegal immigrants from voting — will also prevent thousands of legitimate voters from casting ballots Tuesday, election officials say.

Los Angeles Times - Efforts to bolster earthquake safety in California have hit roadblocks at the state and local levels as memories of major temblors fade and lawmakers and business owners balk at the cost of retrofitting structures.

Los Angeles Times - Whenever he sees MTV crews in Laguna Beach, Derek Ostensen walks over and stands in front of a camera. He's not seeking stardom but rather to stop the filming — for a few minutes at least. Ostensen, 24, who was born in Laguna the year MTV launched, believes the network is stealing his town's soul with its phenomenally popular teen reality soap, 'Laguna Beach: The Real O.C.'

Los Angeles Times - TEL AVIV — On the vast, drab plaza that bears Yitzhak Rabin's name, an Israeli group that promotes tolerance recently brought together a few dozen teenagers, some wearing nose rings and resolutely secular, some in the modest dress of the religiously devout, to consider the tragedy that occurred on that spot 10 years ago Friday.

AP - The world's richest man, Bill Gates, believes it is possible to completely wipe out malaria that kills thousands every day but gets comparatively little attention because it mostly affects poor countries.

AP - Actress Sutton Foster was rehearsing a number called "I'm An Accident Waiting to Happen" earlier this week when she fell and broke her arm.

Reuters - Roving gangs of youths launched hit-and-run arson attacks in the ninth straight night of violence in poor Paris suburbs, as copycat unrest in major towns complicated the government's search for a response.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - About 3,500 U.S. and Iraqi troops launched a major offensive near Iraq's Syrian border on Saturday to hunt down al Qaeda fighters, the military said, adding its aim was to ensure residents can vote in next month's election.

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Snow is expected in Pakistan's earthquake zone next week, the meteorological office said on Saturday, as aid agencies struggle to prevent a surge in pneumonia causing a second wave of deaths.

AULNAY-SOUS-BOIS, France (Reuters) - Hit-and-run arson attacks escalated in poor Paris suburbs as the government met to formulate a political response to nine nights of urban violence that has spawned copycat unrest in major towns.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran is launching a bill to bring foreign partners into its uranium enrichment program, state radio reported on Saturday.

JAKARTA (Reuters) - An Indonesian woman who died in October had bird flu, bringing total deaths from the disease in the world's fourth most populous country to five, a senior Health Ministry official said on Saturday.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish archaeologists are all but certain they have located the skeletal remains of Nicholas Copernicus, the 16th-century cleric whose heliocentric theory was to revolutionize astronomy.

AP - Leaders from across the Americas, wrapping up a two-day summit overshadowed by rampaging protesters, faced a deadlock Saturday over the future of a U.S.-backed free trade zone spanning the Western Hemisphere.

AP - President Bush, reacting to the indictment of a high-level White House aide in the CIA leak case, has ordered his staff to get a refresher on ethics rules.

Reuters - Hit-and-run arson attacks escalated in poor Paris suburbs as the government met to work out a response to nine nights of urban violence that has spawned copycat unrest in major towns.

AP - The United States and China have reached a tentative agreement to limit imports of Chinese clothing and textile products into the United States, U.S. industry officials said Saturday.

AP - A 19-year-old woman died of bird flu in Indonesia and an 8-year-old boy from her family was hospitalized with the virus, officials said Saturday.

Reuters - Leaders from across the Americas sought on Saturday to bridge their differences over a push to create a hemisphere-wide trade area after protests eclipsed the opening day of talks.

Reuters - U.S. President George W. Bush sought to persuade Americans on Saturday to support Judge Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court after his first choice, Harriet Miers, withdrew under fierce attack from conservatives.

Reuters - When the U.S. military handed over control of the Panama Canal in 1999, it left behind thousands of unexploded weapons strewn across jungle firing ranges that are still killing people.

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina (Reuters) - White House officials will be required to attend briefings next week on ethics and the handling of classified information after the indictment last week of a senior official in the CIA leak probe, according to a memo released on Saturday.

AP - Leaders from across the Americas, wrapping up a two-day summit overshadowed by violent anti-U.S. protests, considered a deal Saturday for negotiations sometime next year on creating a vast free trade zone, a top negotiator said.

AP - Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's opinions on abortion, discrimination and other contentious issues are the work of a mainstream jurist, not the ideologue depicted by critics, the White House argues in a voluminous briefing book meant for Republican senators.

AP - A pattern is emerging as the cleanup of Mississippi's Gulf Coast morphs into its multibillion-dollar reconstruction: Come payday, untold numbers of Hispanic immigrant laborers are being stiffed.

AP - Pirates fired a rocket-propelled grenade and machine guns Saturday in an attack on a luxury cruise liner off the east African coast, the vessel's owners said. Two armed boats approached the Seabourn Spirit about 100 miles off the coast of Somalia and fired as the boats' occupants attempted to get onboard, said Bruce Good, a spokesman for Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp.

AP - Swathed in jewels and bathed in the spotlight, Elizabeth Taylor made a rare but regal public appearance to dedicate the new UCLA Clinical AIDS Research and Education Center.

AP - Terrell Owens was suspended indefinitely by the Philadelphia Eagles on Saturday, two days after he criticized the organization for not publicly recognizing his 100th career touchdown catch two weeks ago.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces mounted their biggest offensive in a year against Sunni Arab insurgents in western Iraq on Saturday, saying they would make the lawless area on the Syrian border safe for voters in next month's election.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States should reimburse Iraq for $208 million in apparent overcharges paid to a Halliburton Co. subsidiary, an U.N. watchdog agency said on Saturday.

MIAMI (Reuters) - Pirates firing rocket-mounted grenades and machine guns tried to board a U.S.-owned cruise ship in the Indian Ocean on Saturday but the vessel carrying more than 300 people escaped and no one was hurt, its owners said.

AP - About 3,500 U.S. and Iraqi troops backed by warjets launched a major attack Saturday against an insurgent-held town near the Syrian border, seeking to dislodge al-Qaida and its allies from a western bastion and seal off a key route for foreign fighters entering the country.

AP - Youths armed with gasoline bombs fanned out from Paris' poor, troubled suburbs to shatter the tranquility of leafier towns, torching 900 vehicles, a nursery school and other targets, police said Saturday, in the worst wave of arson since the urban violence began more than a week ago.

AP - About 3,500 U.S. and Iraqi troops backed by jets launched a major attack Saturday against an insurgent-held town near the Syrian border, seeking to dislodge al-Qaida and its allies and seal off a main route for foreign fighters entering the country.

AP - Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's opinions on abortion, discrimination and other contentious issues are the work of a mainstream jurist, not the ideologue depicted by critics, the White House argues in a voluminous briefing book meant for Republican senators.

AP - Negotiators debating whether to revitalize talks on a free trade zone spanning the Americas ended their two-day meeting Saturday without an agreement.

Reuters - The bankrupt utility that supplies power and gas to New Orleans has not set a timetable for restoring service to the city's storm-ravaged eastern neighborhoods and the Lower Ninth Ward, the company's chief executive told an angry crowd of residents on Saturday.

AP - Pirates armed with grenade launchers and machine guns tried to hijack a luxury cruise liner off the east African coast Saturday, but the ship outran them, officials said.

AP - India on Saturday sharply curtailed plans to open its Kashmir frontier with Pakistan early this week to aid earthquake survivors — a setback for the disaster diplomacy that has brought the nuclear-armed rivals closer in a time of need.

AP - Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, took their royal tour of the United States to northern California on Saturday, examining local produce at a market and lunching with locals at an organic farm near San Francisco.

AP - Terrell Owens can host an open house, exercise on his front lawn or practice a new touchdown celebration Sunday. He won't be playing for the Philadelphia Eagles. Owens was suspended indefinitely by the Eagles on Saturday, two days after he criticized the organization for not publicly recognizing his 100th career touchdown catch two weeks ago.

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina (Reuters) - Leaders from around the Americas failed on Saturday to resolve key differences over how to create a hemisphere-wide free trade zone during a regional summit overshadowed by violent anti-U.S. protests.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces mounted their biggest offensive in a year against Sunni Arab insurgents in western Iraq on Saturday, saying they would make the lawless area on the Syrian border safe for voters in next month's election.

PARIS (Reuters) - Two schools were burned down in Paris and hundreds of cars set on fire in cities across France in a tenth night of rioting in poor suburban areas that went into the early hours of Sunday, the Interior Ministry said.

LONDON (Reuters) - British security forces may have thwarted two further attacks since suicide bombers hit London's transport system in July and killed 52 people, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at a U.S.-owned cruise ship carrying more than 300 people in the Indian Ocean on Saturday but the vessel escaped and no one was hurt, its owners said.

AP - Eleven cars were torched inside the city of Paris early Saturday as urban unrest spread from the northeast suburbs, a police official said.

AP - Leaders from across the Americas ended their two-day summit Saturday without agreeing whether to restart talks on a free trade zone stretching from Alaska to Chile.

AP - Michael Robinson threw two touchdown passes and ran for 125 yards, and linebacker Tamba Hali led a ferocious defense as No. 10 Penn State beat No. 14 Wisconsin 35-14 on Saturday.

AP - The urban unrest that triggered scores of arson attacks on vehicles, nursery schools and other targets across France reached the capital overnight, with police saying early Sunday that 13 cars were burned.

AP - About 3,500 U.S. and Iraqi troops backed by jets launched a major attack Saturday against an insurgent-held town near the Syrian border, seeking to dislodge al-Qaida and its allies and seal off a main route for foreign fighters entering the country.

AP - A Jewish Defense League activist imprisoned for his role in a plot to bomb a California mosque and the office of a Lebanese-American congressman was killed at a federal prison in Phoenix, an FBI spokesman said Saturday.

AP - Actors Warren Beatty and wife Annette Bening tried to crash a campaign appearance Saturday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as the governor sought to drum up last-minute support for a group of statewide ballot measures.

AP - Terrell Owens can host an open house, exercise on his front lawn or practice a new touchdown celebration Sunday. He won't be playing for the Philadelphia Eagles. Owens was suspended indefinitely by the Eagles on Saturday, two days after he criticized the organization for not publicly recognizing his 100th career touchdown catch two weeks ago.

Reuters - Schools were torched and more than 600 cars set on fire in cities across France in a tenth night of rioting in poor suburban areas that went into the early hours of Sunday, the Interior Ministry said.

Reuters - Liberal actor Warren Beatty on Saturday shadowed Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as he traversed Southern California seeking support for four initiatives days before a special election.

AP - The urban unrest that triggered scores of arson attacks on vehicles, nursery schools and other targets from the Mediterranean to the German border reached Paris overnight, with police saying early Sunday that 13 cars were burned in the French capital.

AP - The search for a death row inmate who walked unnoticed out of a Texas county jail become a nationwide manhunt Saturday as authorities investigated whether he had help making the brazen escape.

AP - UCLA's luck finally ran out — and how! Freshman Willie Tuitama, in his second college start, threw for two early touchdowns and Arizona rolled for 519 yards in a 52-14 rout of the previously unbeaten and seventh-ranked Bruins on Saturday night.