Reuters - A Kurdish writer was sentenced to 1-1/2 years in prison on Sunday for defaming Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, in a case that has raised questions about the freedom of the press in postwar Iraq.

An Alabama church was destroyed early Saturday in a fire that authorities are calling suspicious.

Reuters - Swiss biotech firm Serono confirmed on Sunday that it was facing class action in a U.S. court after pleading guilty late last year to illegally promoting its AIDS drug Serostim.

AFP - The Security Council was set to ask UN chief Kofi Annan next week to strike a deal with Lebanon on creating an international tribunal to try suspects in the murder of Lebanon's ex-premier, Argentina's ambassador said.

Reuters - Christian peace campaigner Norman Kember went to a service of thanksgiving at his local church in London on Sunday, attending for the first time since he was freed from kidnappers in Iraq earlier in the week.

AP - Two mortar rounds fell within 50 yards of firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's home Sunday in the holy city of Najaf. The popular, anti-American Shiite leader was at home but not hurt, an aide said.

AP - Israel's election next week could have deep repercussions for Palestinians: One candidate for prime minister wants to start talks for a final peace deal, another advocates unilaterally setting Israel's borders and the third wants all peace efforts frozen until violence ends.

AP - While only two Democrats in the Senate have embraced Sen. Russ Feingold's call for censuring President Bush, the idea is increasing his standing among many Democratic voters as he ponders a bid for the party's presidential nomination in 2008.

AP - About 7,000 people have been evacuated from their homes after a leak was discovered at a gas well in a southwest Chinese town where more than 200 people were killed in an earlier gas leak, state media and an official said Sunday. No injuries were reported.

AP - Sealers took to the thawing ice floes off the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday, the first day of Canada's contentious seal hunt, confronting animal rights activists who claim the annual cull is cruel.

E! Online - Buck Owens was a different kind of country music star: He played Carnegie Hall, not the Grand Ole Opry; he lived for Bakersfield, not Nashville.

AP - A federal arrest warrant was issued Saturday for a man suspected of planting explosive devices at the homes of his former co-workers at an aviation company, and police said they believe whoever made the bombs is responsible for similar devices found in other states in recent months.

AP - The filmmaker who ate nothing but McDonald's meals for his Oscar-nominated film, "Super Size Me," gave a profanity-laced, politically incorrect speech at a suburban Philadelphia high school, but not everyone was lovin' it.

AP - Memphis coach John Calipari was right about at least one thing — UCLA is greatly improved since the teams first met back in November.

AP - Richard Fleischer, who directed the 1954 sci-fi flick "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," has died. He was 89.

AFP - There was a "strong possibility" an Afghan facing execution for converting to Christianity could be freed Sunday, an official said, after President Hamid Karzai intervened under pressure from his outraged Western allies.

AP - Members of the congregation planted flowers Saturday outside the Fourth Street Church of Christ as they waited for their minister's wife to be brought home to face first-degree murder charges in the death of her husband.

AP - As a gunbattle raged south of Baghdad, Sens. John McCain and Russell Feingold told Iraqi leaders Saturday that American patience was growing thin and they needed to urgently overcome their stalemate and form a national unity government.

AP - Black-clad riot police clubbed demonstrators as government opponents marched Saturday in defiance of a show of force by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko that has drawn U.S. and European Union sanctions.

AP - Nigeria said Saturday it is ready to hand over Liberian warlord Charles Taylor to be the first former African head of state tried for crimes against humanity, making a reluctant move that will be a strong warning for other warmongers on the continent.