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By Alexandria Sage CANNES (Reuters) - An avenging Venus settling the psychological and sexual score is the star of acclaimed director Roman Polanski's "La Venus a la Fourrure" ("Venus in Fur"), one of the Cannes film festival's two final movies in main competition to premiere on Saturday. The French-Polish director is one of 20 vying for the top Palme d'Or prize to be handed out at the festival on Sunday by a jury led by Steven Spielberg. Polanski won the prize in 2002 for "The Pianist", his semi-autobiographical drama about the Warsaw Ghetto, for which he also won an Oscar for best director. ...

By Alan Baldwin MONACO (Reuters) - Germany's Nico Rosberg scorched to his third successive Formula One pole position with team mate Lewis Hamilton completing a front row lockout for Mercedes at the Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday. The pole was the fourth in a row for Mercedes, whose qualifying form has faded in the races so far this season, and second successive sweep of the top two places. Red Bull's triple world champion Sebastian Vettel qualified third, on a drying track after a damp session, with Australian team mate and last year's winner Mark Webber lining up alongside. ...

By Peter Griffiths LONDON (Reuters) - British police arrested a man under anti-terrorism laws at BBC headquarters after an interviewee said security services tried to recruit one of the two men arrested after a soldier was hacked to death in a London street. Michael Adebolajo, 28 and Michael Adebowale, 22, are under armed guard in hospital after being shot and arrested by police on suspicion of the murder of 25-year-old Lee Rigby, a veteran of the Afghan war, on Wednesday. ...

By Justin Palmer LEEDS (Reuters) - England lost Jonathan Trott and Alastair Cook to successive balls just before lunch as New Zealand rallied on the second day of the second and final test at Headingley on Saturday. The hosts had recovered from the early dismissal of Nick Compton with Cook and Trott sharing a half-century stand before both fell late in the session to leave England 67 for three after the first day was lost to rain. ...

REUTERS - David Beckham was not included in Paris St Germain's squad for their final Ligue 1 game of the season at Lorient on Sunday as the former England captain headed into retirement. The 38-year-old midfielder had expected as much after his special send-off in Paris last weekend, saying he did not think he would play on the artificial pitch at the Brittany side because the surface could aggravate previous Achilles injury problems. Beckham was not among the 19-man squad named by manager Carlo Ancelotti on Saturday on the Ligue 1 champions' website (www.psg.fr). ...

By Jan Harvey LONDON (Reuters) - Gold prices are looking even more vulnerable after April's price crash, as rampant inflation expected from successive rounds of monetary easing fails to materialise. The idea that record-low interest rates would damage paper currencies and boost inflation was a key factor pushing gold to record highs in the wake of the financial crisis. Ultra-loose monetary policies are still in vogue, but gold prices have slid nearly 20 percent since the start of the year and are on track for their biggest quarterly drop in more than 15 years. ...

By Warren Strobel WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saddled with Middle East problems ranging from Iran to Syria and beyond, President Barack Obama now faces one that is both old and new: Iraq. Unresolved sectarian tensions, inflamed by the raging civil war in neighboring Syria, have combined to send violence in Iraq to its highest level since Obama withdrew the last U.S. troops in December 2011, U.S. officials and Middle East analysts say. A Sunni Muslim insurgency against the Shi'ite-led Baghdad government has also been reawakened. ...

By Jeffrey B. Roth PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - Fifty years after the Battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest of the U.S. Civil War, a survivor of that fight marched 200 miles (320 km) from Pittsburgh to the site of the battle for a reunion attended by both Union and Confederate veterans. On Sunday, another veteran, Jim Smith, 70, of Hempfield, Pennsylvania, will start out on the same trek as part of the observation of Memorial Day, when Americans honor their war dead. ...

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's military has freed a number of women and children held hostage by Islamist sect Boko Haram, the army said on Saturday, after its offensive in the northeast of the country overran three of the insurgents' camps. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video earlier this month that the group had kidnapped several women and children in retaliation against security forces who, it says, detained the wives and children of its members without cause. ...

By Jason Bush MOSCOW - Interpol has refused to include UK-based fund manager William Browder on its international search list after deciding that Russia's tax evasion case against him is "of a predominantly political nature". The decision is the latest twist in a long-running battle between the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Browder, whose investment company Hermitage Capital was once the largest investor in Russia's equity market. ...

ROME (Reuters) - A Sicilian priest gunned down by the Mafia twenty years ago outside his home in Palermo was beatified in a seafront ceremony on Saturday attended by an estimated 100,000 people from all over Italy. Father Giuseppe Puglisi was shot in the back of the head in September 1993 in the crime-ridden Brancaccio district of the Sicilian capital where he preached against the Mafia. School parties, local dignitaries and top government ministers braved a stiff wind as the emeritus archbishop of Palermo read out the formal letter of beatification from Pope Francis in Latin. ...

By Tony Jimenez VIRGINIA WATER (Reuters) - Britain's Justin Rose was relieved to feel the sun on his back again at the PGA Championship on Saturday and the world number four took advantage with a three-under-par 69. Most of the players contesting the European Tour's flagship event at Wentworth struggled to cope with wintry conditions on the first two days. The eight-degree temperatures and winds gusting up to 20-mph finally gave way to blue skies and warm sunshine in the third round and Rose blossomed as four birdies helped him glide gently through the field. ...

By Julien Pretot PARIS (Reuters) - Old foe Novak Djokovic and damp weather conditions are the most likely obstacles to claycourt machine Rafael Nadal's bid for a record-extending eighth French Open title over the next two weeks. Nadal, who last year beat Bjorn Borg's record of six Roland Garros crowns, has lost only one match on the Paris clay and has already won five titles on the slow surface this year. However, Serbia's Djokovic ended the Spaniard's eight-year reign at the Monte Carlo Masters to show he is beatable on the red dust after all. ...

Kolkata, May 25 (IANS) One of cricket's batting greats, Rajasthan Royals skipper Rahul Dravid has said that he will retire from the Indian Premier League, after the Champions League T20 later this year.

Chennai, May 25 (IANS) Tamil playback legend T.M. Soundararajan, popularly known as TMS, passed away at his residence here Saturday, family members said. He was 91.

Kolkata, May 25 (IANS) The Chennai Super Kings Saturday said its players and support staff have no knowledge of betting and spot fixing, and were distressed by the allegations and news reports concerning the franchise and the Indian Premier League.

Kolkata, May 25 (IANS) Mumbai Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar who has been nursing a wrist and hand injury is unlikely to play the Indian Premier League final against Chennai Super Kings at the Eden Gardens Sunday.

Kolkata, May 25 (IANS) Chennai Super Kings (CSK) said Saturday its players and support staff have no knowledge of betting and spot fixing and were distressed by the allegations and news reports concerning the franchise and the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Mumbai, May 25 (IANS) India's foreign exchange (forex) reserves decreased by $1.72 billion to $291.96 billion for the week ended May 17, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India.

London, May 25 (IANS) Singer Tulisa Contostavlos has split from her footballer boyfriend Danny Simpson, reports thesun.co.uk.

Kolkata, May 25 (IANS) The Congress in West Bengal Saturday attacked Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on implementation of the rural jobs programme, saying the state has turned out a poor performer in the 100 days work scheme despite tall claims of the Trinamool Congress government.

Panaji, May 25 (IANS) A decision on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate will only be taken by the party's parliamentary board "when it is appropriate" and not when the national executive meets here next month, a BJP leader said Saturday.

New Delhi, May 25 (IANS) Demanding a halt in the implementation of the Nitaqat law in Saudi Arabia, the BJP Saturday said here that it would work against Indian interests.

Bangalore, May 25 (IANS) Dhruv Sunish, the 13-year old from Maharashtra, capped his fine run with a maiden title triumph in the boys singles of the Karle Infra ATF Under-14 Asian junior ranking tennis tournament here Saturday as he scalped top seed and statemate Siddhanth Jagdish Banthia 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the final.

New Delhi, May 25 (IANS) Amid widening ambit of investigations into the IPL-6 spot fixing scam, Law Minister Kapil Sibal Saturday said that the government will soon bring a stand-alone law to deal with malpractices in sports.

New Delhi, May 25 (IANS) While the recent controversy around the Indian Premier League (IPL) has revealed a network of betting in cricket, official national crime data shows gambling, in various forms, is rampant in the country, a think tank said Saturday.