AP - Even as a youngster, Rollie looked older and wiser than his years. His white mustache sprouted longer by the month, until it flamed from his cheeks like a German kaiser's. Sometimes, it all but hid his mouth.

AP - South Korea said it will resume imports of U.S. beef after American and South Korean suppliers agreed to block meat from older cattle, aiming Saturday to soothe health concerns that sparked weeks of demonstrations against new President Lee Myung-bak.

AP - U.S. Marines are trading gunfire and artillery shells with Taliban militants in the volatile southern province of Helmand, the world's largest poppy growing region.

AP - President Bush is accusing Democrats in Congress of blocking his energy proposals, saying they are partly to blame for high gasoline costs pinching Americans' budgets.

AP - With communities in the Midwest still under water, Democrat Barack Obama on Saturday criticized Republican John McCain for opposing federal spending on flood prevention programs and opened a new debate in the White House race.

AP - The decisive battle of the Iraq war is shaping up — not in the streets of Baghdad but in the halls of government where the future of America's role across the region is on the line.

AP - Amid the battle to hold back the swollen Mississippi River, some towns got an unwelcome surprise Saturday as river levels rose higher than projected.

AFP - Hand-picked spectators cheered runners as the Olympic torch relay passed through Tibet's capital Lhasa on Saturday, just three months after deadly riots against China's rule here.

AFP - Zimbabwe's veteran leader Robert Mugabe has said opposition claims of violence ahead of next week's presidential run-off election are aimed at tarring the crunch vote, state media reported Saturday.

Reuters - The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Friday that could shield phone companies from billions of dollars in lawsuits for their participation in the warrantless surveillance program begun by President George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks.

Reuters - The United States has obtained new intelligence that raises new questions about whether North Korea pursued an alternative route to producing a nuclear weapon, The Washington Post reported in Saturday editions.

Reuters - President George W. Bush did not know about a White House effort to leak the identity of a CIA agent but tried to protect staffers who were involved in one of the biggest scandals of his administration, former Bush spokesman Scott McClellan told Congress on Friday.

Reuters - Iran is pressing on with nuclear enrichment "non-stop," its envoy to the U.N. nuclear agency was quoted as saying on Saturday, despite a world powers' offer of economic incentives if it halts such work.

Reuters - Chinese Communist Party officials in charge of restive Tibet used the passing of the Olympic torch relay through the capital Lhasa on Saturday to defend their control and denounce the exiled Dalai Lama.