Desperate letters written by the father of Anne Frank, the teenager whose diary of hiding from Nazis documented the horror of Jews during World War II, have surfaced in the United States and will be released next month.

Tiger Woods is willing to skip the British Open to be with his wife, Elin, for the birth of their first child, but perhaps by then he'll want the Claret Jug for a christening mug.

Maria Sharapova was fined 2,000 US dollars after her father coached her from the sidelines during her Australian Open quarter-final win over Anna Chakvetadze, officials have announced.

Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim is on the attack after returning to the political stage, launching a series of broadsides against the ruling party which he says is "rotten to the core".

US Senator John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate who narrowly lost to Republican President George W. Bush, announced he will not launch a new bid for the White House.

Rapper Snoop Dogg pleaded not guilty to possession of a deadly weapon, following his arrest at a California airport last year for carrying an outlawed police baton.

Jean-Francois Deniau, a former French minister, writer and rights campaigner who helped co-write one of Europe's founding treaties, died at his home aged 78, his family said.

Former Uruguayan dictator Juan Maria Bordaberry, under arrest for human rights violations during his 1973-1976 regime, is in "serious" condition in the hospital after suffering pulmonary problems, hospital officials said.

Saddam Hussein's lawyers are mulling plans to write their memoirs about the trial that led to the execution of the Iraqi dictator last month for crimes against humanity, a defence team member said.

Israeli President Moshe Katsav, who is taking a leave of absence after learning he will be charged with rape, is a bland bureaucrat who rose from obscurity to assume the nation's top job.

Pope Benedict XVI deplored animated cartoons and video games intended for children that "exalt violence" or "trivialize human sexuality."

Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born chief of India's ruling Congress party, is the country's favourite politician, according to an opinion poll.

Hundreds of people braved the freezing weather to pay their final respects to Abbe Pierre, France's best-loved priest and homeless campaigner who died this week aged 94.

Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, toppled by a US invasion and prosecuted for drug trafficking, will be released in September from the Florida prison where he has been held since 1990, US authorities and media reported.

Former foreign minister Ismail Cem, an architect of Turkey's improved ties with Greece and one of its most prominent social democrats, has died here at the age of 67, his family said.

The man who co-authored a book with poisoned Russian former spy Alexander Litvinenko has cancelled a planned trip to London after being advised by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation that his safety may be at risk, the Financial Times has reported.

Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan returned overnight to his native Ghana to a hero's welcome, sources at Accra airport said.

Howard Hunt, the veteran CIA spy who helped plan the break-in at Washington's Watergate complex which brought down president Richard Nixon in the most notorious political scandal in US history, has died at 88, his church said.

Bill Sweetenham, the Australian in charge of British swimming, believes his compatriot Ian Thorpe could yet reverse his decision to walk away from the sport at the age of 24.

Pope John Paul II, frail and in declining health, came close to resigning in 2000 at age 80, according to a memoir by his personal secretary Stanislaw Dziwisz, the Italian press reported.