US President Barack Obama fires up his first official campaign rallies Saturday at an inopportune moment, just as the strong jobs-led recovery he hopes to ride to reelection seems to be stalling.

A tragedy like the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise liner "will not happen again," the shipping line's boss said Saturday as he unveiled a new luxury vessel to the public.

Violent protest over tuition hikes outside the ruling Quebec Liberal Party's convention left nine people injured and ended with 106 arrests, police said Saturday.

French team Groupama launched a comeback in the sixth stage of the Volvo Ocean Race on Saturday to keep their chances of scoring a second leg win alive.

England's Ali Carter booked his place in the final of the world snooker championship Saturday with an emphatic victory over Scotland's Stephen Maguire.

Racing-Metro all but booked their place in the Top 14 play-offs and condemned Stade Francais to missing out with a 19-13 victory over their bitter rivals at Stade de France on Saturday.

Walter Mazzarri says his side cannot afford to slip up if they want to play Champions League football next season.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has sent messages of condolence to Nigeria following the death of former international Rashidi Yekini.

Antonio Conte is sure that he and his players know exactly what is needed of them to come away from the final two games of the season with the Serie A title in their hands.

Unbeaten Indonesian boxing hero Chris John defended his WBA world featherweight title for the 16th time with a 12-round defeat of Japanese challenger Shoji Kimura on Saturday.

Rangers failed to muster up a win in their final home game of the season as they played out a goalless draw with Motherwell at Ibrox on Saturday.

Facebook, already assured of becoming one of the most valuable US firms when it goes public later this month, now must convince investors in the next two weeks that it is worth all the hype.

Harlequins secured first place in English rugby's Premiership with a 24-10 win over Sale that guarantees them a home semi-final in the play-offs.

Kaia Kanepi claimed her second WTA trophy of the season after saving two match points in a 3-6, 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 victory over Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro in the final of the Estoril Open on Saturday.

Croatian third-seed Marin Cilic will face Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber in the final of Munich's ATP tournament after they both enjoyed victories in Saturday's semi-final.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ended a tense visit to China Saturday with a fragile deal in hand over a top dissident, as anxious activists waited to see if Beijing would let him leave the country.

The self-confessed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and four co-defendants appeared in a Guantanamo Bay court on Saturday to be arraigned, all facing the death penalty if convicted.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Bangladesh on Saturday to pull out of a spiral of political turmoil, saying the impoverished nation's democratic credentials were at stake.

Cologne had their German league relegation confirmed on Saturday while Borussia Dortmund broke the Bundesliga record for the most German league points in a season with a 4-0 thrashing of Freiburg.

Egypt's military on Saturday ordered 300 people detained after deadly clashes between troops and anti-army protesters in Cairo and imposed a new curfew, as tensions spiral ahead of a key presidential poll.

German pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG has challenged a ground-breaking Indian ruling that allowed a local firm to produce a vastly cheaper copy of its patented drug for kidney and liver cancer.

Two people were killed and 19 others injured after an unidentified man tossed an explosive device into a crowded tourist area in a southern Philippine city late on Saturday, police said.

Australia's world champion Casey Stoner took pole position for Sunday's Portuguese MotoGP here on Saturday.

France international Bacary Sagna was ruled out of next month's European Championship on Saturday after breaking his leg in Arsenal's 3-3 Premier League draw with Norwich, manager Arsene Wenger confirmed.

Arsenal's bid for a top-four finish suffered a major setback as Steve Morison's late goal earned Norwich a deserved point in a six-goal thriller at the Emirates.

Hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem on Saturday held rallies demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, many of whom are currently on hunger strike.

Those people who don't believe in miracles should ask Fabrice Muamba, the Bolton Wanderers midfielder told The Times after his extraordinary recovery from nearly dying of cardiac arrest two months ago.

Russia's state oil champion Rosneft struck a $2.5 billion Arctic exploration deal Saturday with Norway's Statoil -- its third global tie-up in a month and a sign of its growing global ambitions.

Massimiliano Allegri says Sunday night's penultimate match of the season will decide the destination of this season's Serie A title.

Eight elderly mountaineers who went missing in Japan's Northern Alps following a snowstorm were confirmed dead on Saturday after some of them were evacuated by helicopter, police said.

The north African offshoot of Al-Qaeda now dominates in northern Mali, which fell into rebel hands in March, regional security sources said Saturday.

Niger officials on Saturday held talks in Tripoli on security issues including Saadi Kadhafi and other members of the former regime who are sheltered in Niger and wanted by Libyan authorities.

Vladimir Putin supporters unveiled plans on Saturday to draw more than 50,000 people onto the streets of Moscow in a show of force ahead of the strongman's inauguration for a third presidential term.

Iraq aims to double power provision in a year, it said on Saturday, in a bid to bridge a shortage that remains a key frustration for ordinary Iraqis, though the country will still fall short of 24-hour power.

A lawyer for Moamer Kadhafi's son Seif al-Islam has called on the International Criminal Court to disqualify chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Campo from the case, alleging possible bias, the ICC said Saturday.

A fire killed 14 people trapped in a locked down drug rehabilitation center east of Lima with no means of escape, the city's fire department said on Saturday.

A tragedy like the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise liner "will not happen again," the shipping line's boss said Saturday as he unveiled a new luxury vessel to the public.

The ACT Brumbies underlined their Super 15 title credentials with a superb 23-6 win over arch-rivals the NSW Waratahs on Saturday in Canberra.

Prime Minister David Cameron on Saturday hailed fellow Conservative Boris Johnson's re-election as London mayor but it was the sole bright spot for his party as it took a mid-term beating.

Regime troops used tear gas on Saturday to try to disperse a mass funeral attended by thousands of people who took to the streets of the Syrian capital to mourn slain protesters, a rights group said.

Egypt's military ruler attended Saturday an unprecedented public funeral for a soldier killed in clashes with protesters as the army detained 179 people over the violence in the run-up to landmark presidential polls.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Saturday criticised the Argentinian government for exploiting the London Olympic Games with an advertisement showing the captain of their field hockey team training in the Falklands.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived on Saturday for a brief but difficult mission in Bangladesh, where violence and a crackdown on the opposition threaten new instability.

Italian archaeologists on Saturday inaugurated new flower gardens in the ruins of ancient Roman palaces on the Palatine Hill in a colourful reconstruction of what the area may have looked like 2,000 years ago.

Four Bahraini policemen were wounded in a "terrorist" attack in a Shiite village, one of them critically, the kingdom's interior ministry said on Saturday.

A river near one of Nepal's most popular Himalayan resorts killed 13 people and left 17 missing -- including three Russian tourists -- when it burst its banks and swept away a village on Saturday.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Damascus on Saturday for funerals to mourn slain protesters, according to video streamed online, despite two explosions that rocked the Syrian capital.

After weeks of intense shuttle diplomacy, Yemen's new President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi has taken firm control of two key military units, seen as a bold step towards asserting his authority on a divided nation.

Egypt's military prosecution on Saturday ordered 179 people be detained over deadly clashes between troops and anti-military protesters in Cairo, a military source told AFP.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived on Saturday for a difficult mission in Bangladesh where violence and a crackdown on the opposition threaten new instability.