AP - Suspected al-Qaida militants armed with pistols and shotguns attacked a police guard post outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul on Wednesday, sparking a gunbattle that left three attackers and three officers dead.

AFP - Australians protesting against Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Sydney took a creative turn on Wednesday, staging an "annoying" fashion show of T-shirts displaying anti-Catholic slogans.

AP - Charging bulls plowed into or trampled piles of fallen thrillseekers Wednesday, injuring at least two people at the running of the bulls, including an American who was gored in the abdomen.

AP - Heavy fighting erupted Wednesday between government supporters and Hezbollah's allies in northern Lebanon, killing at least three people and shattering a fragile truce that lasted just two weeks, security officials said.

AP - Iraqi police say a bomb in Fallujah has killed four police officers and one civilian.

AP - French President Nicolas Sarkozy will attend the Beijing Olympics' opening ceremony next month, his office said Wednesday, ending a boycott threat and seeking to soothe Chinese irritation over French support of Tibet.

AP - An Israel-Hamas truce has boiled down to a simple trade-off: For a day of calm, Israel adds five truckloads of cows and 200 tons of cement to the barest basics it ships to Gaza, but rocket fire from the territory reseals the border for a day.

AP - A joint gathering of major developed and developing nations on Wednesday agreed that climate change was "one of the great global challenges of our time" and pledged to back a United Nations effort to conclude new climate pact by 2009. The major economies said they supported longterm and midterm goals for greenhouse-gas reductions, but endorsed no targets.

AP - Australia's top Roman Catholic cleric has denied trying to cover up a sexual abuse case involving clergy, attempting Tuesday to fight off an embarrassing scandal just days before Pope Benedict XVI arrives for a visit.

AP - Afghanistan blamed a foreign intelligence agency Tuesday for the bombing of the Indian Embassy, making a clear reference to Pakistan as U.S. generals step up calls for the neighboring nation to crack down on extremists.

AFP - The US ambassador to the UN said Tuesday that he was confident a sanctions resolution targeting Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his cronies would be passed by the Security Council this week.