AFP - Swiss mining giant Xstrata on Wednesday announced a bid for Lonmin, describing it as the world's third largest platinum producer and valuing the company at more than six billion euros.

AP - The Olympic flame approached the final destination of its long and sometimes contentious global tour Wednesday, greeted by rapturous crowds in the Chinese capital two days before it officially launches the Summer Games.

AP - Police led away four activists from the U.S. and U.K. on Wednesday after they unfurled pro-Tibet banners outside Beijing's National Stadium, the site of the Olympic Games' opening ceremony later this week.

AP - The last survivor of the deadliest mountaineering disaster ever to hit the world's second-highest peak was rescued by helicopter Wednesday, nearly five days after the tragedy, a Pakistani army spokesman said.

AP - President Bush offered poverty-wracked North Korea hope Wednesday that it could share in South Korea's economic prosperity, while warning that it first must take concrete steps to live up to a promise to end its nuclear weapons program.

AFP - Clearing natural forests in Australia would pose a greater danger to the global climate than previously thought because they hold three times as much carbon as estimated, a report released Tuesday said.

AFP - A Pakistani neuroscientist and mother of three, who is accused of Al-Qaeda links and shooting at US officers in Afghanistan, was due to face a New York court Tuesday in a case sparking protests in her homeland.

AFP - An early Beatles tape which captures John Lennon and Paul McCartney cracking jokes in a recording studio sold at auction in Britain for 9,800 pounds (12,400 euros, 19,000 dollars) on Tuesday.

AP - The last survivor of the deadliest mountaineering disaster to hit K2 limped into base camp with frostbitten feet Tuesday, but thick clouds threatened to keep him on the mountain for at least another night.