AFP - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh underwent heart bypass surgery Saturday in an operation that raises questions about his political future.

AFP - President Barack Obama has overturned what he described as an 'unwarranted' eight-year ban on US government funding for family-planning groups which carry out or facilitate abortions overseas.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese central banker denounced accusations by U.S. Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner that China was manipulating its yuan currency, calling them misleading and warning against 'excuses' for protectionism.

AP - The U.S. coalition said Saturday that an overnight raid killed 15 Taliban militants but village elders who quickly traveled to speak with government officials said the dead were all civilians.

Reuters - China's central bank on Saturday said U.S. accusations that it was manipulating the yuan currency were misleading, a day after Beijing cautioned incoming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to handle their ties with care.

Reuters - A Chinese central banker denounced accusations by U.S. Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner that China was manipulating its yuan currency, calling them misleading and warning against 'excuses' for protectionism.

AFP - India's 76-year-old Prime Minister Manmohan Singh underwent heart bypass surgery Saturday, raising questions about his political future with general elections looming.

AFP - US-led coalition forces Saturday said they killed 15 armed militants in eastern Afghanistan, but local legislators say the casualties were civilians including women and children.

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition forces killed 15 militants, including a woman, during an operation targeting a Taliban commander in the eastern Afghan province of Laghman overnight, the U.S. military said Saturday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's central bank on Saturday said U.S. accusations that it was manipulating the yuan currency were misleading, a day after Beijing cautioned incoming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to handle their ties with care.

AP - If Gov. David Paterson thought announcing his choice to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton in the U.S. Senate after nearly two months of deliberation would bring an end to the political strife, he was clearly mistaken.

AP - Each year, the federal government spends roughly $2 billion to rid the nation's most contaminated nuclear site of toxic and radioactive waste. Now, winds of change are blowing across southeast Washington's Hanford nuclear reservation.

AP - Mohammed Zayid returned to his northern Gaza neighborhood after the war to find nothing as it was.

AP - Teenage girls in blue and green burqas pour into the schoolyard, where they pull off their coverings, stuff them in their book bags and head to class. It almost seems as if the acid attacks never happened.

AP - Visiting one of his favorite Chicago restaurants in November, Barack Obama was asked by an excited waitress if he wanted the restaurant's special margarita made with the finest ingredients, straight up and shaken at the table.

AP - The only wild things that Serena Williams had to deal with Saturday were a few bad shots. Just like the distraction of a streaker the last time she played, they were easy to overcome.

Reuters - U.S.-led coalition forces killed 15 militants, including a woman, during an operation targeting a Taliban commander in the eastern Afghan province of Laghman overnight, the U.S. military said Saturday.

AFP - A 20-year-old Belgian man has been charged with killing two infants and a 54-year-old female employee at a child daycare centre and has been remanded in custody, a prosecutor said on Saturday.

AP - President Barack Obama on Saturday laid out more pieces of an economic plan he says would add 3,000 miles of electrical lines, increase security at 90 ports and double the United States' renewable energy capacity within three years.

AP - Tens of thousands of children wearing uniforms and carrying satchels flocked back to schools in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, days after Israel ended its fierce military operation against the territory's militant Hamas rulers.

AP - Friends and neighbors of the pilot who safely landed a crippled jetliner in New York's Hudson River planned to give him a hero's homecoming on Saturday.

AP - Andy Murray ran off 11 straight games in another dominating performance, overwhelming Jurgen Melzer 7-5, 6-0, 6-3 Saturday to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open.

AFP - President Barack Obama said on Saturday he hopes to sign his 825-billion-dollar economic stimulus plan into law in less than a month, expressing confidence the US will emerge more prosperous than ever.

AFP - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was in 'stable' condition after doctors completed heart bypass surgery Saturday on the 76-year-old leader, Indian media reported.

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition forces killed 15 militants in an operation in eastern Afghanistan overnight, the U.S. military said on Saturday, but a provincial governor said at least 10 civilians were killed in the raid.

AP - A suicide car-bomb attack near an African Union peacekeepers' base killed 14 people in the Somali capital on Saturday, the mayor of Mogadishu said.

AP - The departure of four Democratic senators this year has cast a new — and at times, unflattering — light on governors and their power to fill Senate vacancies.

AP - Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray dominated their third-round matches Saturday at the Australian Open to move closer to a possible semifinal showdown.

Reuters - U.S.-led coalition forces killed 15 militants in an operation in eastern Afghanistan overnight, the U.S. military said on Saturday, but a provincial governor said at least 10 civilians were killed in the raid.

AFP - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh underwent heart bypass surgery on Saturday and doctors were 'confident' about his prognosis, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.

AFP - At least three people were killed and 16 injured when high winds sweeping across Spain and southern France brought down part of a sports hall near Barcelona, a regional official said.

AP - The sagging economy has put a hit on plans for this year's Super Bowl, not that visitors to Tampa for the game and hundreds of millions watching on TV will be able to tell the difference.

AFP - Four children were killed and another nine injured when high winds sweeping across Spain and southern France brought down part of a sports hall near Barcelona, a regional official said.

AFP - Some 700 illegal immigrants broke through the gates of the centre where they were being held on the Italian island of Lampedusa, and started demonstrating in the city streets, the mayor said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama pledged on Saturday to use a proposed $825 billion economic recovery package to create jobs, improve health care and expand renewable energy.

AP - In 1973, a young terrorist named Khalid Duhham Al-Jawary entered the United States and quickly began plotting an audacious attack in New York City.

Reuters - President Barack Obama pledged on Saturday to use a proposed $825 billion economic recovery package to create jobs, improve health care and expand renewable energy.

AFP - Hurricane force winds lashed Spain and France Saturday, killing a dozen people, including four children when part of a sports hall collapsed, while nearly two million were left without power.

AFP - At least 22 civilians were killed Saturday in Mogadishu by a suicide car bomb targeting African Union peackeepers and the ensuing gunfight, an official and medics said.

GAZA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama plans to dispatch his Middle East envoy to the region next week, in a quick start to the new administration's efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking and shore up a shaky Gaza truce.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A moderate 5.7-magnitude earthquake shook Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, on Saturday morning.

AP - President Barack Obama took to the airwaves Saturday to promote his economic aid plan in what's-it-mean-to-me terms: thousands of better schools, lower electricity bills, health coverage for millions who lose insurance.

AP - Tens of thousands of children returned to schools across Gaza on Saturday after three weeks of war, playing games for some relief from the devastation and telling friends and teachers about the explosions they heard and relatives they lost.

AP - President Felipe Calderon's war on drug trafficking has led to his own doorstep, with the arrest of a dozen high-ranking officials with alleged ties to Mexico's most powerful drug gang, the Sinaloa Cartel.

AP - Just a case of plumb luck. It took a plumber to retrieve a woman's 7-carat diamond ring after city workers failed in efforts to flush the gem out of the pipes of a restaurant toilet.

Reuters - President Barack Obama plans to dispatch his Middle East envoy to the region next week, in a quick start to the new administration's efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking and shore up a shaky Gaza truce.

Reuters - A moderate 5.7-magnitude earthquake shook Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, on Saturday morning.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama sought to build public support on Saturday for an $825 billion economic recovery plan, pledging in his weekly radio address to use the funds to create jobs, improve healthcare and expand renewable energy.

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Chrysler LLC sees U.S. industry auto sales in 2009 at the low end of prevailing expectations but its turnaround plan is aimed at achieving 'viability' even at that sales level, executives said on Saturday.

AP - The pilot who safely landed a US Airways jetliner in the Hudson River says he was only doing his job.

AP - Finding financial aid for college this year promises to be tougher than any final exam.

Reuters - President Barack Obama sought to build public support on Saturday for an $825 billion economic recovery plan, pledging in his weekly radio address to use the funds to create jobs, improve healthcare and expand renewable energy.

Reuters - Chrysler LLC sees U.S. industry auto sales in 2009 at the low end of prevailing expectations but its turnaround plan is aimed at achieving 'viability' even at that sales level, executives said on Saturday.

AFP - Hurricane-force winds lashed Spain and France Saturday, killing at least 15 people including four children when part of a sports hall collapsed, while over a million were left without power.

AP - When a whistle blew Saturday afternoon, two teams of University of Wisconsin-Madison students pelted each other with snowballs, but the 45-minute battle won't be going down in history.

AP - Tyreke Evans scored 17 points, including a free throw with one second remaining, to help No. 22 Memphis to a 54-52 victory over in-state rival Tennessee on Saturday.

Reuters - Ford Motor Co has enough liquidity to fund its restructuring plan and despite the deep downturn in auto sales still sees no need to ask for government loans, Chief Executive Alan Mulally said on Saturday.

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co has enough liquidity to fund its restructuring plan and despite the deep downturn in auto sales still sees no need to ask for government loans, Chief Executive Alan Mulally said on Saturday.

AP - Jerome Dyson scored 15 points and No. 3 Connecticut held 19th-ranked Notre Dame to a season-low 33 percent shooting in a 69-61 victory Saturday night, ending the nation's longest home winning streak at 45 games.

Reuters - A comment by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's eldest son Kim Jong-nam that he is not interested in the issue of succession does not imply he is out of the competition to run the country, analysts said on Sunday.

TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - Relatives of scores of missing people demanded on Saturday that Mexican authorities dig up mass graves and identify human remains after a drug gang suspect confessed to dissolving the bodies of 300 murder victims with corrosive chemicals.

SEOUL (Reuters) - A comment by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's eldest son Kim Jong-nam that he is not interested in the issue of succession does not imply he is out of the competition to run the country, analysts said on Sunday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Hundreds of millions of Chinese geared up to welcome the Year of the Ox on Sunday, packing temple fairs, setting off fireworks and firecrackers and hurrying to train and bus stations to get home for the traditional holiday.

AP - Katie Stam of Indiana was crowned Miss America on Saturday night, fighting off a throat infection, laryngitis and 51 other contestants to win the 88-year-old pageant.

AP - Shane Mosley dominated from start to finish, knocking out Antonio Margarito for the first time in his career in the ninth round Saturday night to win the WBA welterweight title in a stunning upset.

AP - Jelena Jankovic went out in the fourth round of the Australian Open on Sunday and No. 3 Dinara Safina was twice a point away from following the top-ranked player to the exit.

Reuters - Relatives of scores of missing people demanded on Saturday that Mexican authorities dig up mass graves and identify human remains after a drug gang suspect confessed to dissolving the bodies of 300 murder victims with corrosive chemicals.

Reuters - Hundreds of millions of Chinese geared up to welcome the Year of the Ox on Sunday, packing temple fairs, setting off fireworks and firecrackers and hurrying to train and bus stations to get home for the traditional holiday.

AFP - European Union foreign ministers meet Sunday with counterparts from the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey to study ways to get Arab nations behind new Middle East peace moves.