BEIRUT (AP) — Gunmen on Saturday abducted the elderly father of Syria's deputy foreign minister, the official's office said, in the latest kidnapping targeting family members of figures in President Bashar Assad's regime.

ROME (AP) — A week out from the French Open, Serena Williams is only one victory away from winning her fourth straight tournament.

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's military said on Saturday it had killed 10 insurgents and arrested 65 as part of an offensive meant to wrest back control of parts of its remote northeast from an Islamist group seen as the main security threat to Africa's top oil producer. A spokesman for Defence Headquarters also said the military had seized stockpiles of weapons including rocket-propelled grenades, guns and ammunition from areas around Maiduguri, the main city in the northeast. ...

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Even before the first drops flow, Uganda's oil sector is beset by bribery allegations against officials, tax-related cases abroad that cost the government millions in legal fees, and the alleged interference of a president whose firm control of the sector worries transparency campaigners.

CINCINNATI (AP) — For more than 100 years, the Anna Louise Inn in downtown Cincinnati has been a safe and serene home for thousands of women.

PARIS (Reuters) - France has received approval from the U.S. Pentagon to buy two Reaper drones for intelligence gathering, and now only needs backing from Congress, Le Monde newspaper said on Saturday. With its current hardware increasingly outdated, France is urgently trying to build up a modern fleet of drones for surveillance operations in countries such as Mali. Le Monde said France intended to eventually buy a total of five or seven Reapers, built by privately held General Atomics, for 300 million euros ($385 million). ...

BAGHDAD (AP) — Gunmen killed an anti-terrorism policeman and his family in Baghdad on Saturday, while kidnappers abducted eight policemen guarding a post on Iraq's main highway to Jordan and Syria, the latest in a wave of violence to grip the country. Attackers also shot dead a Sunni cleric in the Shiite-majority south.

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria's military declared a 24-hour curfew Saturday on neighborhoods in a northeastern city that's the spiritual home of an Islamic extremist network as soldiers continued the government's emergency campaign against insurgents in the region.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sunbathers flocking to Southern California beaches are used to feeding the meter or paying a parking attendant. Not so along the less developed north coast where it's customary to ditch cars on the shoulder of Highway 1 to surf, swim or picnic.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Political scandals have strange ways of causing collateral damage, and Republicans are hoping the furor over federal tax enforcers singling out conservative groups will ensnare their biggest target: President Barack Obama's health care law.

BENGHAZI (Reuters) - Armed groups attacked military posts in Libya's second city Benghazi with bombs and a rocket-propelled grenade, an army commander said on Saturday. Nearly two years after the uprising that ended Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule, the government still exerts little control over the armed brigades that helped overthrow him. Oil-producer Libya is largely split into fiefdoms of such brigades that are competing for influence. No one was hurt in the four overnight attacks on three Benghazi army posts, said the military commander, Hamed Belkhair. ...

The failure of the University of Montana to respond adequately to rape and sexual assault allegations against popular football players has led to a broadening of how the federal government defines sexual harassment, causing free speech advocates to worry that the new policy will be used to punish “unwelcome” flirting and chill the right to speak freely on campus.

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (AP) — Two commuter trains packed with rush-hour commuters collided in a crash that sent about 70 people to the hospital, severely damaged the tracks and threatened to snarl travel in the congested Northeast Corridor.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Powerball is a game of numbers, and lottery officials say the majority of possible combinations have already been purchased ahead of Saturday night's near-historic $600 million drawing.

GRANDE RIVIERE, Trinidad (AP) — Giant leatherback turtles, some weighing half as much as a small car, drag themselves out of the ocean and up the sloping shore on the northeastern coast of Trinidad while villagers await wearing dimmed headlamps in the dark. Their black carapaces glistening, the turtles inch along the moonlit beach, using their powerful front flippers to move their bulky frames onto the sand.

NEW HOLLAND, Pa. (AP) — Authorities say a 6-year-old boy died after he was kicked in the throat by a pony on a south-central Pennsylvania farm.

KIEV (Reuters) - Supporters and opponents of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich scuffled as both sides held large rallies in the capital Kiev on Saturday, police and local media said. A dozen young men hurled stones and plastic water bottles at opposition supporters and were then pushed away by police in riot gear, television footage showed. Anti-Yanukovich protesters also fought back and at one point some of them tried to drag the crew from a military vehicle that carried messages mocking opposition leaders, pictures showed. ...

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria's military has declared a 24-hour curfew in several neighborhoods of a northeastern city as its campaign against Islamic extremists in the region continues.

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (AP) — As she flipped through the cemetery register, Mary Blakely's eyes filled with tears. On line after line, the entry read simply "Baby Boy" or "Baby Girl," followed by a surname and a burial date.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Seeking maximum political gain from the string of controversies swirling around the White House, Republicans are on the attack against Democratic lawmakers who accepted donations from the union that represents Internal Revenue Service employees.