AP - Glen Phillips kneels down, scoops up a handful of dirt and squashes it in his fist to test whether the soil in this dry patch of the Australian Outback is ready to take a crop of wheat.

AFP - Militant attacks killed 10 NATO soldiers and at least two dozen Afghans on Sunday, officials said, in one of the bloodiest days for international forces helping Afghanistan fight an Islamic insurgency.

AFP - Hundreds from captain Graeme Smith and fellow opener Neil McKenzie on Sunday gave South Africa hope of forcing what would be a remarkable draw against England in the first Test at Lord's.

AP - Bertha weakened into a tropical storm and stalled near Bermuda on Sunday, but forecasters say it might still deal a glancing blow to the Atlantic island.

AP - Wajih Hameed is an Iraqi general with an attitude.

AP - The first openly gay U.S. Episcopal bishop was barred from a once-a-decade Anglican meeting so he wouldn't become a focus of the global event.

AP - He wore a trendy black shirt just like many of the kids in the crowd. But Nelson Mandela moved slowly, leaning on his wife and on a white cane as he crossed the stage to adoring cheers.

AP - The Brangelina twins are here: Angelina Jolie has given birth to a girl and a boy, and dad Brad Pitt took the whole thing in stride.

AP - The Israeli government said it will swap prisoners with the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah on Wednesday, closing a chapter between the enemies two years after they fought an inconclusive war.

AP - Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared Sunday that Israel and the Palestinians have never been closer to making peace — even as a widening corruption probe brings him closer than ever to being ousted from office.

AP - A multi-pronged militant assault on a small, remote U.S. base killed nine American soldiers and wounded 15 Sunday in the deadliest attack on U.S. forces in Afghanistan in three years, officials said.

AFP - Thirty-seven people were arrested at a climate change protest in Australia on Sunday when they blocked a railway line delivering coal, police said.

AFP - A suicide bomber attacked a bazaar in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing at least 15 people and injuring more than 30 others, a police commander told AFP.