AP - The United States is dropping North Korea from a terrorism blacklist, The Associated Press has learned, in the latest attempt to salvage a nuclear disarmament deal before President Bush's term ends in January.

AFP - All-rounder Jacob Oram shone with both bat and ball to help New Zealand beat Bangladesh by 75 runs in the second one-day international here on Saturday and level the three-match series 1-1.

AFP - Retail magnate Philip Green is looking to invest two billion pounds to save Icelandic group Baugur, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.

AP - Police say two Arab-owned apartments were torched in the Israeli town of Acre amid clashes between Jews and Arabs.

AP - President Robert Mugabe has laid claim to all key Cabinet posts and Zimbabwe's powerful state security apparatus in a direct challenge to a power-sharing agreement that has deadlocked over allocation of ministries.

AP - Austrian politician Joerg Haider, whose far-right rhetoric at times sounded sympathetic to the Nazis and contemptuous of Jews — and at one point led to months of international isolation for the Alpine republic — died early Saturday in a car accident. He was 58.

AP - When Indonesia's health minister stopped sending bird flu viruses to a research laboratory in the U.S. for fear Washington could use them to make biological weapons, Defense Secretary Robert Gates laughed and called it "the nuttiest thing" he'd ever heard.

AP - With U.S. warships lurking nearby, the pirates who hijacked an arms-laden Ukrainian tanker off Somalia threatened to destroy the vessel unless a ransom is paid, a spokesman for the bandits said.

AP - As Norbert bore down on Mexico's southern Baja California peninsula, it gathered strength overnight and was classified as a Category 3 hurricane early Saturday.

AP - Gunmen opened fire in a bar in northern Mexico, killing 11 people, and the body of a newspaper editor was found shot dead on the side of a highway in two separate attacks, police said Friday.