AFP - Chinese megastar Maggie Cheung, in Venice for the screening of Isaac Julien's art film "Better Life", has shunned the celluloid since becoming the first Asian actress to win in Cannes in 2004.

AP - A plane carrying skydivers crashed in flames near a popular glacier in New Zealand's Southern Alps, killing five New Zealanders and four European tourists, police said.

AP - Nervous Afghans pulled more deposits out of the nation's largest bank despite assurances from government leaders that their money was safe.

AFP - The British newspaper whose allegations of a betting scam have rocked the world of cricket said Saturday that a fourth Pakistan player was being probed over the claims, but declined to name him.

AP - The powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake that smashed buildings, cracked roads and twisted rail lines around a New Zealand city also ripped a new 11-foot- (3.5 meter-) wide fault in the earth's surface, officials said Sunday.

AFP - New Zealand braced for more destruction Sunday as aftershocks rocked the region following the most devastating earthquake in decades and as a powerful storm approached.

AP - Abdul Rehman and his family live under a tree next to a pile of rubble on a newly created island where his house used to be.

AP - NATO commanders were overly optimistic when they predicted quick success taking the key Taliban-held town of Marjah last winter, the outgoing deputy commander said.

AFP - A year out from defending their World Cup crown, South Africa looked in disarray when they completed a dismal Tri Nations campaign with a 41-39 defeat against Australia on Saturday.

AFP - The US Treasury Department denied media reports Saturday that American taxpayer funds would be put towards bailing out Afghanistan's beleaguered Kabul Bank.

AP - In a further step toward reconciling with insurgents, President Hamid Karzai said Saturday he will soon name the members of a council tasked with pursuing peace talks with rebels willing to break with al-Qaida and recognize the government in Kabul.

AP - The death toll from a Pakistani Taliban suicide attack on a Shiite Muslim procession rose to 65 Saturday as critically wounded people died in hospitals, while a suspected U.S. missile strike killed seven insurgents in a restive tribal area.

AP - South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan offered to resign Saturday amid accusations of nepotism over the hiring of his daughter for a ministry job, officials said.

AP - An 11-year-old boy was recovering Saturday after a sea lion mauled him at a popular Sydney zoo's aquarium show as horrified visitors looked on.

AP - North Korea is preparing its largest political meeting in 30 years, and leader Kim Jong Il is expected to appoint a son to a key Workers Party position in what would be the strongest sign yet of a succession movement in the secretive communist country.

AP - Whether or not she emerges as winner following recent elections, Australia's first woman prime minister will have led the nation's oldest political party to one of the lowest points in its 119-year history.

AP - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday he saw and heard evidence that the U.S. counterinsurgency strategy is taking hold in critical Kandahar province.