WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday rejected the government's bid to force cigarette makers to pay billions of dollars in past profits as part of its racketeering case against the industry.

MIAMI (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge ruled on Monday that President Bush has no authority to order an American citizen jailed indefinitely as an enemy combatant, and ordered terrorism suspect Jose Padilla be released within 45 days.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope John Paul was in a 'very grave' condition on Friday and appeared close to death after suffering cardio-circulatory collapse and shock, the Vatican said in a statement.

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Japanese transport ministry in March issued a 'severe warning' to the operator of the train line where Japan's worst crash in over 40 years took place, a Japanese newspaper reported on Sunday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Paul Wolfowitz became World Bank president on Wednesday and said his agenda would focus on Africa, tackling corruption and making poor countries feel less sidelined in the bank's decisions.

AP - Spain became the third country to legalize gay marriage Thursday in a parliament vote that left gay activists blowing kisses to lawmakers and the powerful Catholic Church issuing veiled calls for defiance.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - NASA is considering sending two astronauts on an unprecedented spacewalk to the belly of space shuttle Discovery to smooth out rough spots in the ship's heat shield, U.S. space agency officials said on Sunday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The imprisoned founder of a radical Islamic group and his three followers were indicted on Wednesday for plotting attacks on Los Angeles-area military facilities and synagogues, the Israeli consulate and El Al airlines, authorities said.

AP - A Texas prosecutor subpoenaed records for the home telephone of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and the phone of his political campaign Thursday.

AP - The Pittsburgh Steelers finally won the kind of close game they've been losing at home all season.

AP - As a young government lawyer opposed to abortion rights, Samuel Alito argued for a strategy of chipping away at the landmark Supreme Court 1973 ruling legalizing abortion rather than mounting an all-out assault likely to inflict a defeat on the Reagan administration, according to documents released Wednesday.

AP - Hundreds of thousands of New Year's revelers rang in 2006 from Times Square, ignoring the sleet and snow to celebrate with noisy horns, hugs and kisses as the famous ball dropped on the final seconds of 2005.

AP - A bomb exploded alongside a group of Iraqi men waiting for work in eastern Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least eight and wounding more than 50, as a new video from kidnappers threatened to kill two German hostages if Germany fails to stop cooperating with the Iraqi government.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian and Iranian negotiators make a fresh bid in Moscow on Wednesday to reach a compromise that might defuse Tehran's stand-off with the West over its nuclear program.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Soyuz spacecraft carrying Brazil's first astronaut and a Russian-U.S. crew docked at the orbiting International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday, two days after blasting off from earth.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Mediators from the African Union (AU) agreed in the early hours of Monday to give the warring parties from Sudan's Darfur region an extra 48 hours to strike a peace deal after a midnight deadline expired.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. military inquiry into whether Marines tried to cover up the killings of Iraqi civilians in Haditha will conclude that some officers gave false reports to their superiors, who then failed to scrutinize the information, according to a newspaper report on Thursday.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Former Japanese prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, an outspoken politician who jousted with U.S. officials over the auto trade and brought 'Big Bang' financial reforms to Tokyo, died on Saturday at 68, Kyodo news agency said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A car bomb killed at least seven people in the Iraqi town of Muqdadiya, northeast of Baghdad on Tuesday, police said.

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Ernesto hit North Carolina near hurricane strength on Thursday, dumping heavy rain on both Carolina states and forecasters warned it could trigger life-threatening floods and tornadoes.

AP - Investigators and workers in hard hats gathered up the scorched pieces of Cory Lidle's plane Thursday as they looked for clues to why the aircraft crashed into a luxury Manhattan high-rise, killing the New York Yankees pitcher and his flight instructor.

AP - Authorities arrested a man Tuesday who is suspected of intentionally starting two wildfires this summer and is considered a person of interest in a blaze started last week that killed five firefighters.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government warned American private financial services on Thursday of an al Qaeda call for a cyber attack against online stock trading and banking Web sites beginning on Friday, a source said.

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand grappled on Monday with the mystery of who ruined New Year parties with a series of bombs that killed three people in Bangkok and wounded 38, including nine foreigners, as police ruled out the obvious suspects.

BEIJING (Reuters) - President Bush should scrap his unilateral approach and respect religious diversity in his 'war on terror' to resolve troubles in Iraq, a senior Chinese official said in comments published on Thursday.

JAKARTA (Reuters) - The U.S. embassy in Jakarta received a bomb threat on Thursday relayed by police, an embassy spokesman said.

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Defending champion Florida and Ohio State will slug it out for the college basketball championship after winning their NCAA Tournament semi-finals on Saturday.

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Pro-immigration activists geared up for marches in several U.S. cities on Tuesday to demand rights for illegal immigrants, though numbers are likely to be down from the mass rallies of a year ago, organizers said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A tuberculosis patient who turned fugitive in order to continue with wedding and honeymoon plans despite warnings not to travel has apologized to the fellow airline passengers he may have endangered, ABC television reported on Friday.

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (Reuters) - President George W. Bush will seek Russian President Vladimir Putin's support for wider sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, during weekend talks in Maine where Bush hopes to rekindle a friendship with the Russian leader.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch is set to achieve his decades-long dream of running the venerable Wall Street Journal after Dow Jones & Co Inc.'s board agreed to News Corp's $5 billion buyout bid on Tuesday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Civilian deaths from violence in Iraq rose slightly in August, with 1,773 people killed, government statistics showed on Saturday.

YANGON (Reuters) - U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari was waiting to see Myanmar junta chief Than Shwe on Monday in pursuit of his mission to end a bloody crackdown against 45 years of military rule, diplomats said.

SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - Two rivers burst their banks and swept away a Dominican Republic village, taking the death toll from Tropical Storm Noel's downpours on the Caribbean country and neighboring Haiti above 90 on Wednesday.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Saturday it would safeguard its right to nuclear technology whatever European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana reported about his latest talks with Tehran.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian said on Tuesday China now had 1,328 ballistic missiles aimed at the self-ruled island, up by more than a third from a previous estimate, further threatening stability in the Taiwan Strait.

GUANGZHOU, China (Reuters) - Millions of Chinese faced a humanitarian crisis on Friday, as petrol and food reserves dwindled and yet more bad weather was forecast for a country paralyzed by record-breaking cold and snow.

AP - Firearms and an 'anarchist type textbook' were found in the same motel room where several vials of the deadly toxin ricin was found, police said Friday.

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain's is on a nostalgic tour this week of some of the places he has known, featuring a lot of straight talk about what a difficult young man he was.

HAGATNA, Guam (Reuters) - They can't vote for the president, but thousands of people in the tiny U.S. territory of Guam will do their bit to decide the Democratic candidate this weekend.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Front-runner Barack Obama turned to wrapping up the Democratic presidential nomination after a party committee dealt rival Hillary Clinton a blow by seating the disputed Michigan and Florida convention delegations at half-strength.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China is to resume fence-mending talks with envoys of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, on Tuesday in a move that could burnish its international image weeks before the Chinese capital hosts the Olympics.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that members of Pakistan's spying service helped plan the suicide bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul this month, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (Reuters) - Republicans open their convention on Monday to nominate presidential candidate John McCain with no pomp and little politics, shelving the usual celebration out of deference to the approaching threat of Hurricane Gustav.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate will vote on Wednesday night on a new version of the $700 billion bailout package for Wall Street, rekindling hopes that the credit crisis can be stemmed before claiming yet more banks and causing further damage to a weakening global economy.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama's lead over Republican rival John McCain dipped slightly to 5 points with three days left in the race for the White House, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Saturday.