AFP - French President Nicolas Sarkozy paid tribute Wednesday to "historic, unfailing and immovable friendship" between Paris and Beijing and awarded China a "gold medal" for its Olympic preparations.

AP - Iraqi lawmakers failed Wednesday to agree on a provincial election law and adjourned for the month, casting doubt whether U.S.-backed balloting can be held this year in the country's 18 provinces.

AP - Army officers upset with the president's overtures toward Islamic hard-liners staged a coup in Mauritania on Wednesday, overthrowing the first government to be freely elected in this sprawling desert nation in more than 20 years.

AP - With all eyes on Beijing, President Bush bluntly told China that America stands in "firm opposition" to the way the communist government represses its own people, a rebuke delivered from the heart of Asia on the cusp of the Olympic Games.

AP - As the two women hunkered down in the dark, enveloped in blue burqas, they thought the gun-toting Taliban might free them despite accusations they had run a prostitution ring for a U.S. base.

AP - A jury of six military officers at Guantanamo Bay reached a split verdict Wednesday in the war crimes trial of a former driver for Osama bin Laden, clearing him of some charges but convicting him of others that could send him to prison for life.

Reuters - Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will run the country under a mooted draft agreement while President Robert Mugabe will become ceremonial president, a South African newspaper reported on Wednesday.

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.