AFP - Thousands of people rallied in southern Australia Sunday to protest the dwindling water levels in one of the country's greatest rivers, claiming the loss was causing an environmental disaster.

AFP - Myanmar's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed a rare meeting with her lawyer to discuss her ongoing house arrest, a spokesman for her party said Sunday.

AFP - A suicide bomber rammed a van full of explosives into a police post in eastern Algeria, killing seven people and injuring 19 others overnight, Algerian public radio reported Sunday.

AP - Hurricane Hernan reached Category 3 strength far out to sea on Saturday, becoming the first major hurricane of the eastern Pacific season.

AP - Mahmoud Darwish, a Palestinian cultural icon whose poetry eloquently told of his people's experiences of exile, occupation and infighting, died Saturday in Houston. He was 67.

AFP - Britain urged travellers to leave Georgia as soon as possible Sunday, after the explosion of violence between the ex-Soviet country and Russia.

AP - The U.S. military blamed al-Qaida in Iraq Saturday for a suicide car bombing in the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar, while an Iraqi official said the death toll in the attack had risen to 25.

AP - The fatal stabbing of the father of a former Olympian at a Beijing landmark cast a sad shadow over the first full day of Olympic competition Saturday, just hours after China's jubilant opening of the Summer Games.

AP - In an Olympic medley of sports and politics, President Bush on Sunday called for more religious freedom in China, sought an end to an escalating conflict between Russia and Georgia and cheered U.S. athletes as they dribbled and swam for the gold.

AP - Airstrikes and clashes north of Kabul have killed 11 people, some of whom might be civilians, Afghan officials said Sunday. In the south, five civilians died when their vehicle hit a mine, police said.

AP - Russia expanded its bombing blitz Sunday against neighboring U.S.-allied Georgia, targeting the country's capital for the first time while Georgian troops pulled out of the capital of the contested province of South Ossetia under heavy Russian shelling.

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.