AFP - England's veteran Tracey Hallam defied the Chinese crowd at the Olympic badminton on Saturday to defeat Hong Kong's Yip Pui Yin on the first day of competition.

Reuters - South African President Thabo Mbeki arrived in Zimbabwe on Saturday to mediate power-sharing talks between the ruling party and opposition amid growing optimism over an agreement.

AFP - British police on Saturday arrested 50 environmental campaigners as they tried to break into a power plant in protest at plans to build a new generation of coal-fired electricity plants.

AP - The killing of an al-Qaida chemical weapons expert in a missile strike two weeks ago on a Pakistani border village has dealt a heavy blow to the terrorist group's ambitions to build weapons of mass destruction, a former CIA case officer says.

AP - Juggling sports and strife, President Bush set about tending to delicate relations with China's leaders as troubles kept dogging his whirlwind Olympic adventure.

AP - Russian tanks and troops rumbled into the separatist province of South Ossetia and Russian aircraft bombed a Georgian town Saturday in a major escalation of the conflict that has left hundreds of civilians dead and wounded.

AP - A Chinese man stabbed the in-laws of the U.S. Olympic men's volleyball coach, killing one and injuring the other while they visited a Beijing tourist site near the main venue where Olympic competitions began Saturday.

AFP - An American tourist was killed and another injured when a Chinese man attacked them at an historic monument in Beijing on Saturday, the first full day of Olympic competition, authorities said.

AP - Hurricane Hernan formed far off Mexico's Pacific coast on Friday and continued to pick up steam, but forecasters predicted it will not threaten land.

AP - Georgia will remove all of its 2,000 soldiers from Iraq to join the fighting in the breakaway province of South Ossetia as soon as transport can be arranged, the commander said Saturday.

Reuters - China overcame early nerves to win a quick gold when Olympic competition began in earnest on Saturday after a dazzling opening ceremony.

AP - Pro-Tibet activists wrapped themselves in Tibetan flags and lay down in Tiananmen Square on Saturday, their group said, in a protest that breached heavy security surrounding the heart of Beijing for the Olympic Games.