Sarkozy hit by new phone-tap leaks

A corruption scandal surrounding former French president Nicolas Sarkozy deepened further on Saturday with fresh leaks of telephone conversations purporting to show he offered to get a judge a plum job in return for favors.

In brain, sex addiction resembles drug addiction

Pornography triggers brain activity in sex addicts similar to the effect drugs have on the brains of drug addicts, researchers said on Friday - but that doesn't necessarily mean porn is addictive.

Anybody home? Lush Pacific atoll struggles with shrinking population

It was a school once, but there are no children anymore. The lonely building on this remote Pacific island now contains only a punching bag that someone has strung from classroom rafters and a note scrawled on the chalkboard in Niuean: "Keep this place clean," it said, "so it stays beautiful."

IN BRIEF (Page 10)

Merkel seeks change in behavior amid spying row

Chancellor says scandal likely won't undermine trans-Atlantic trade deal

Afghan rivals agree to resolve dispute over votes

Afghanistan's two presidential candidates have agreed to a historic deal to audit all eight million votes cast in the disputed election after two days of intense shuttle diplomacy by top US diplomat John Kerry.

Girl who was supposedly HIV-free suffers relapse

A US girl born with the AIDS virus and in remission for years despite stopping treatment now shows signs that she still harbors the human immunodeficiency virus - and therefore is not cured. The news is a setback to those who hoped that very early treatment with powerful HIV drugs might reverse an infection that has seemed permanent once it takes hold.

Dinosaur skeletons returning home to Mongolia

US officials on Thursday turned over to the Mongolian government enough 80 million-year-old dinosaur skeletons to stock a museum, including two relics of a kind of dinosaur that a prosecutor said "memorably stampeded" in a Hollywood movie.

Uruguay's Mujica: Florist, guerrilla and president

A former florist, guerrilla and prisoner now known as the world's poorest president, Uruguayan President Jose Mujica says he has had "an extraordinary life".

India building highest railway bridge

Indian engineers are toiling in the Himalayas to build the world's highest railway bridge, which is expected to be 35 meters taller than Paris' Eiffel Tower when completed by 2016.

Israel downs 3 Hamas rockets

Three Gaza rockets were shot down over the Tel Aviv area on Friday as Hamas militants claimed they had fired M75 missiles at the Israeli city's airport.

Strikes could breach laws of war, UN says

Israel could be violating the laws of war by bombing Palestinian homes in Gaza, the UN's human rights office said on Friday, as the death toll from the Israeli strikes rose to 100.