AFP - Ashwell Prince told South Africa cricket fans not to worry about the form of Graeme Smith after the Proteas captain's first, and possibly only, innings before next week's first Test against England saw him make just 35 against Middlesex here Friday.

AFP - Serena Williams joked earlier this week that she would steal her sister Venus's breakfast on Saturday if they both made it to another Wimbledon singles final.

AP - It's Staff Sgt. Edgar Covarrubias' second Fourth of July in Iraq. No family barbecue, no fireworks, but Covarrubias says he'll call his mom, wife and kids to share the day anyway.

AP - Gunmen on a motorcycle assassinated an official of Iraq's biggest Shiite party Friday in the southern city of Basra, police said.

AP - Pakistan's Foreign Ministry insisted Saturday that its nuclear proliferation case was closed, a day after the disgraced architect of its atomic program claimed the army under President Pervez Musharraf helped spread the technology.

AP - Gunmen in a dangerous part of southern Afghanistan assassinated an Afghan lawmaker, while a roadside bomb militants were planting detonated prematurely, killing 10 Taliban, officials said Saturday.

AP - Colombian military intelligence agents posing as aid workers and a media crew flew to the jungle aboard a white helicopter, staging a mock humanitarian mission that rebels were told would ferry their hostages to another camp for talks on a prisoner swap.

AFP - Andrew Symonds hit the top score of 87 and David Hussey supported with 50 to help Australia set West Indies 283 to win the fourth One-day International on Friday.

AP - The Palestinian who went on a deadly rampage on a Jerusalem street this week had spent years in a romantic relationship with a Jewish Israeli woman, relatives said, a rarity in a city where such ties between Arabs and Jews are nearly nonexistent.

AFP - Hashim Amla's fine start to South Africa's tour of England continued with another big century on Friday while Ashwell Prince also weighed in with a hundred on the first day against Middlesex at Uxbridge.

AP - Dmitry Medvedev's grand debut on the world stage at the Group of Eight summit Monday promises insights into the riddle all Kremlinologists are trying to crack: Is he calling any of the shots as Russia's president — or is he merely a puppet of Vladimir Putin?