AFP - Swiss banking giant UBS said it finalized this week the sale of its 55.6-percent sake in energy holding company Motor-Columbus, to a consortium of Swiss shareholders as well as EOS Holding, Atel and Electricite de France (EDF).

Reuters - A Kurdish writer was sentenced to 1-1/2 years in prison on Sunday for defaming Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, in a case that has raised questions about the freedom of the press in postwar Iraq.

AP - America has a world champion — Kimmie Meissner, not Sasha Cohen.

AFP - Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service denied a Pentagon report that said Moscow gave Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein intelligence from inside the US military command on US troop movements after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

AFP - A sharp increase in Indian and Chinese applications to US graduate schools in 2006 has reversed two years of decline in the foreign student intake caused by post-September 11 visa restrictions.

AP - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is throwing its weight behind organic products, a move that experts say could have the same lasting effect on environmental practices that Wal-Mart has had on prices by forcing suppliers and competitors to keep up.

AP - One of the world's oldest creatures, a giant tortoise believed to have been about 250 years old, has died in the Calcutta zoo where it spent more than half its long life.

AP - Keith Foulke slapped the label "Public Enemy No. 1" on himself because of his poor pitching last season. If his knees were still injured, he said, "I'm a Tuesday night softball guy."

AP - A group of Cuban migrants who reached an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys only to be sent back to Cuba received official confirmation from American officials on Friday that they can return to the United States for good on humanitarian visas.

AP - Displaced New Orleans residents deserve the same voting privileges as the people of war-torn Iraq, several black leaders argued Friday in pushing for satellite voting from locations outside Louisiana.

AFP - Polish authorities said they are investigating allegations North Korean labourers are being forced to work in inhumane conditions in the northern Polish shipyard where the Solidarity trade union was born 26 years ago.

Reuters - Sales of new U.S. homes plunged 10.5 percent in February, the biggest drop in nearly nine years, while prices fell and the number of homes on the market hit a record high, the government said on Friday in a report signaling significant slowing in the housing market.

AP - One of the world's oldest creatures, a giant tortoise believed to have been about 250 years old, has died in the Calcutta zoo where it spent more than half its long life.

AP - New York Yankees catcher Jorge Posada was released from the hospital on Thursday, one day after being admitted for a broken nose.

Reuters - "The Lives of Others," a taut drama about an East German spy who questions his faith in the communist dictatorship, dominated the nominations for Germany's top film prizes, organizers said Thursday.

AP - Municipal authorities in the southern Romanian town of Giurgiu have come under media criticism for spending public funds on two parties for female employees which featured male strippers.

The rebel leaders are accused of flooding U.S. streets with cocaine to fund their guerrilla warfare in Colombia. The indictments against dozens of top FARC members also detail vicious tactics they allegedly used to keep coca farmers in line -- including dismembering them while they were still alive.

The rebel leaders are accused of flooding U.S. streets with cocaine to fund their guerrilla warfare in Colombia. The indictments against dozens of top FARC members also detail vicious tactics they allegedly used to keep coca farmers in line -- including dismembering them while they were still alive.

AP - New York Yankees catcher Jorge Posada broke his nose Wednesday when he was hit in the face by a ball while playing catch.

The rebel leaders are accused of flooding U.S. streets with cocaine to fund their guerrilla warfare in Colombia. The indictments against dozens of top FARC members also detail vicious tactics they allegedly used to keep coca farmers in line -- including dismembering them while they were still alive.