Agencies (Moscow): Iran expressed regret on Sunday for the death of six United States astronauts in the space shuttle disaster, saying politics should not get in the way of humanitarian-ism, but it made no mention of an Israeli who also died.

Washington (Agence France-Presse): U.S. and British plans for the opening phase of a war on Iraq call for a precision bombing campaign that would destroy symbols of Saddam Hussein's power and demoralize Iraqi troops, media reports said on Sunday.

Washington (Agence France-Presse): The eyes of the world will be focused squarely on Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday when he lays out the U.S. case against Iraq at a high-stakes special meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

Texas (Reuters): What went wrong? As Americans mourned the deaths of seven of the "best and brightest" astronauts on Sunday, teams of police and soldiers fanned across Texas searching for clues as to what caused the space shuttle Columbia to break apart as it returned to Earth, just 16 minutes from landing at its home base.

Texas (Reuters): As Americans mourned the seven astronauts killed when space shuttle Columbia broke up in the skies over Texas, the search to find out what destroyed NASA's oldest shuttle continued across the thick forests where some of the fiery debris crashed to earth.

Canberra (Dow Jones): Exports of cattle from Australia jumped to record levels in 2002 both in value and volume terms, with sheep and goat exports also booming, industry services concern Australian Livestock Export Corp. reported Friday.

Washington (Reuters): War jitters are cloud-ing the U.S. economic outlook, making it hard to discern the recovery's underlying state of health and difficult to forecast what will happen when the current uncertainty lifts, economists say.

Australia (Agence France-Presse): South African superstar Ernie Els played superior pressure golf in the closing holes to claim the European Tour co-sanctioned Heineken Classic by one shot in a gripping finish at Royal Melbourne on Sunday.

Tokyo (Agence France-Presse): Lindsay Davenport claimed her first title in 15 months when she downed fellow former world number one Monica Seles in the Pan Pacific Open tennis final on Sunday.

Paris (Agence France-Presse): World number one Serena Williams heads back to where it all began Monday but the all-conquering American had better watch out - local girl Amelie Mauresmo wants to defend her patch.