AFP - A desperate hunt was under way Saturday for more than 1,100 prisoners who escaped a jail in southern Afghanistan when Taliban rebels blasted it open, killing 15 guards, officials said.

Reuters - Finance ministers from the world's richest nations warned on Saturday surging commodity prices threatened economic growth, but shrank from any talk of new controls on volatile oil and currency markets.

Reuters - Tim Russert, who became a household name in American political discourse as host of NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday talk show, died on the job of a heart attack on Friday, the television network said. He was 58.

Reuters - Afghan and foreign troops were hunting on Saturday hundreds of prisoners, including militants, who escaped the main prison in southern Kandahar city after a raid by Taliban insurgents, the government said.

Reuters - Top EU diplomat Javier Solana handed Iran an offer by six major powers of trade and other incentives on Saturday to try to coax it into halting sensitive nuclear work, but Tehran again ruled out any such suspension.

Reuters - Overflowing rivers in Iowa and other Midwest states forced evacuations and disrupted the region's economy on Friday with fears of worse to come from fragile levees and more rain.

AP - For R. Kelly, six years of pretrial delays came down to an agonizing 10 minutes.

AP - Miami real estate agent Lucas Lechuga began blogging to share his knowledge of the local market. He didn't bargain for a $25 million defamation lawsuit when he wrote that a Miami developer had gone bankrupt decades ago.

AP - There was no limping into the weekend for Tiger Woods. In fact, he put on a near record-setting display at the U.S. Open that may have left the rest of the field feeling hobbled.

AP - As a wildfire bore down on his home of 15 years, hopscotching between properties here, Larry Knifong decided to take his chances and stay — that is, until the flames raced up a ridge toward this ranch-style house.

AP - When Bangladesh's military-backed government arrested more than 10,000 people, human rights activists denounced it as a political crackdown six months ahead of elections at the end of this year meant to restore elected government. In Washington, the Bush administration was largely silent.

AP - A 7.2-magnitude earthquake ripped across mountains and rice fields in northern Japan on Saturday, killing at least three people as it sheared off hillsides, jolted buildings and shook nuclear power plants. At least seven people were missing.

AP - Soaring oil and food prices are emerging as serious threats to global economic growth, finance ministers from the world's top industrialized nations said Saturday, while vowing to work together to address the problem.

AP - Hospital patients in wheelchairs and on stretchers were evacuated in the middle of the night as the biggest flood Cedar Rapids has ever seen swamped more than 400 blocks Friday and all but cut off the supply of clean drinking water in the city of 120,000.