Francesca Schiavone became the first Italian woman to reach a Grand Slam final on Thursday when Russia's Elena Dementieva retired at the end of the first set of their Roland Garros semifinal.
Japan's Cabinet resigned en masse Friday to clear the way for a ruling party vote to select a successor to former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who resigned two days earlier.
China's out-of-form former Olympic champion, Liu Xiang, can still be a contender at the 2012 London Games, according to veteran American hurdler Allen Johnson.
BP sliced off a pipe with giant shears Thursday in the latest bid to curtail the worst spill in US history, but the cut was jagged and placing a cap over the gusher will now be more challenging.
Finance Minister Naoto Kan, a fiscal conservative with an image as a challenger to the status quo, looked set to become Japan's next premier on Friday, media said, in a ruling party vote ahead of an election next month.
Japan's political turbulence
Security in Central Asia will be on the agenda as Chinese President Hu Jintao attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit next week in Uzbekistan.
China's rejection on a proposed visit by the United States defense secretary, which shocked the Pentagon on Tuesday, is aimed at Washington's reluctance to adjust its tone on its disputed arms sale to Taiwan.
Any action taken by the United Nations should not punish the Iranian people nor impact their normal lives, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu on Thursday.
It was right out of a Hollywood gangster movie: A man with a home-made pistol shoots a senior police officer and holds off a well-equipped police team for 10 hours before he is shot dead.
The launch of the country's fourth Beidou orbiter late on Wednesday night signals "a step closer" toward the highly anticipated Chinese-version of the Global Positioning System (GPS), a senior official said on Thursday.
The country is facing mounting pressure to control its pollution, despite progress made in cleaning up the environment, a senior official said on Thursday.
BP Plc may have to sell some of its most-valued assets, including a stake in the biggest US oil field, to pay cleanup costs, fines and legal damages from the largest offshore spill in American history.