Birut - Kurdish forces engaged in sporadic battles with Islamic State jihadists around the Syrian town of Kobane on Saturday, seeking to expand their control in the area, a monitor said.

A woman in New Mexico bought a 1990 Chevrolet van back in 2001 and has been driving herself and her grandkids around in it since. Unknown to her the entire time there were five bricks of marijuana hidden in a side-door of the vehicle.

Mexico - A horse-shaped UFO, reminiscent of the Greek mythological Pegasus, was captured on video hovering over the Colima volcano, one of Mexico's most active, located 300 miles west of Mexico City.

Cairo - An Egyptian court on Saturday banned the armed wing of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, declaring it a "terrorist" group, a judiciary official said.

It has been some five years in the making but boxing fans will just be happy it is here: a contract between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather has been negotiated. TMZ Sports said a source told them the two sides came to an agreement Friday afternoon.

Rome - Sergio Mattarella, a constitional court judge from Sicily who is seen as a symbol of Italy's battle against organised crime, was elected Italy's new president on Saturday.

The Illinois Oswego Police Department have recounted details of an event earlier this week where an officer who had arrested a pizza delivery driver proceeded to complete the delivery to the customer.

Berlin - Richard von Weizsaecker, who died Saturday aged 94, was the first president of a reunited Germany and played a major role in helping the country face up to its Nazi past.

Kiev - Fighting between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian forces in the east of the country has left 15 government soldiers dead and 30 wounded over the past 24 hours, Ukraine's defence minister said Saturday.

Cotabato - An eight-year-old girl and three men -- one with his hands bound -- were among those killed in a botched anti-terror police operation in the Philippines last weekend, a local official said Saturday.

Athens - Greece's new government began a search for European allies Saturday in its bid to renegotiate its loans and end austerity, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel once again ruled out debt relief for Athens.

Washington - The US state of Ohio is postponing the execution of seven death row inmates, officials said Friday, following several botched lethal injection killings across the country last year.

Budapest - Hungary's maverick Prime Minister Viktor Orban has spent the past year straddling the divide between Russia and his European Union counterparts on the crisis in Ukraine.But he may soon be forced to pick sides.

Shikarpur - Thousands of Shiite Muslims rallied Saturday to protest against the killing of 61 people in a suicide bombing at a mosque, as southern Pakistan shut down to mourn the nation's worst sectarian attack in nearly two years.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have a solution for changing between clear and shaded eyeglasses, quickly, without the long changeover time of transitional lenses.

Claresholm - When Dozer was stolen out of his own backyard 18 months ago, Richard Brower was devastated. He didn't know how to deal with the loss of his German shepherd buddy. He enlisted his motorcycle buddies and people from the dog park to search for his friend.

There's something about winter that brings out the courage, and brazen competitive foolishness, of Canadians. They show it in hockey, on skis and in climbing ice walls. Yes, Canadians Will Gadd and Sarah Hueniken climbed a wall of ice.

When Pamela Scott, a 56-year-old from Morro Bay, California, was diagnosed with a brain tumor, it was hoped that the removal would stop the unceasing headaches that left her in constant agony.

Washington - Following widespread concerns during 2012 and 2013 a new report suggests there are still gaps in the oversight of U.S. compounding pharmacies.

Washington - The CIA and Israel's spy agency Mossad were behind an elaborate plot to kill Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh in a 2008 car bomb attack in Syria, the Washington Post reported.