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By Tony Jimenez VIRGINIA WATER, England (Reuters) - Nicolas Colsaerts has experienced something of a comedown since helping Europe win the Ryder Cup in September and the big-hitting Belgian is looking for his game to ignite some time soon. The 30-year-old, dubbed 'The Dude' by his team mates after making a stylish debut in the biennial event last year, looked typically cool and dapper after moving into contention with a second-round 70 at the PGA Championship. ...

By Mike Collett LONDON (Reuters) - UEFA president Michel Platini repeated his call for soccer to win the battle over the evils affecting the game on an historic day for Gibraltar who were delighted at becoming European soccer's newest member on Friday. UEFA also responded to demands from its top clubs by awarding a Champions League place to the Europa League winners, while delegates at the annual Congress of European soccer's governing body unanimously approved a resolution introducing tough new measures to fight racism. ...

By Patricia Zengerle and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama wants to roll back some of the most controversial aspects of the U.S. "war on terror," but efforts to alter the global fight against Islamist militants will face the usual hurdle at home: staunch opposition from Republicans in Congress. In a major policy speech on Thursday, Obama narrowed the scope of the targeted-killing drone campaign against al Qaeda and its allies and announced steps toward closing the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba. He acknowledged the past use of "torture" in U.S. ...

By Jonathan Kaminsky OLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) - A bridge collapse that sent cars and drivers tumbling off a four-lane interstate and into a frigid river in Washington state may have been caused when a semi-trailer truck crashed into the structure, officials said on Friday. Three people were rescued from the Skagit River after a span of the bridge collapsed Thursday evening. Two of those rescued were hospitalized with hypothermia but no one was killed, officials said. ...

By Amie Ferris-Rotman and Mirwais Harooni KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban militants launched a large-scale attack involving the United Nations in the centre of the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday, sparking a five-hour battle with security forces. A plume of smoke hung over Kabul after the attack was launched, with the sound of .50 calibre heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and sniper fire clearly audible throughout the city centre as night fell. An Afghan police officer was killed and 10 other people were wounded during the attack, which began at 4 p.m. ...

By Sarah McBride and Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc is in talks to buy Waze, an Israeli mapping start-up that has held discussions with several large technology companies, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday. Google's discussions with Waze, which one of the sources told Reuters remained fluid and could change in tenor at any time, come amid reports Facebook is willing to pay $1 billion for the crowd-sourced service, which relies on information provided by its 47 million members to craft its mobile-oriented maps. ...

LONDON (Reuters) - The wedding dress worn by film star Elizabeth Taylor for her first marriage to hotel heir Conrad Hilton in 1950 will go up for sale next month, auction house Christie's said on Friday. The simple, but elegant garment created by Hollywood costume designer Helen Rose for the then 18-year-old Taylor is an oyster shell-coloured, floor-length satin gown with a fine silk gauze off-the-shoulder illusion neckline. The dress, which was a gift from MGM film studios, has a top estimate of 50,000 pounds. ...

By Lavinia Mo HONG KONG (Reuters) - The new H7N9 bird flu virus can be transmitted between mammals not only via direct contact but also in airborne droplets, and may be capable of spreading from person to person, Chinese and American researchers have found. A study published in the journal Science and presented at a briefing in Hong Kong on Friday found that three ferrets - an animal often used for research on flu - that were in the same cage as ferrets infected with H7N9 had contracted the disease. ...

By Peter Griffiths LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's security services faced questions on Friday over whether they could have done more to prevent the murder of a soldier hacked to death in a busy London street after it emerged that his suspected killers were known to intelligence officers. Suspects Michael Adebolajo, 28 and Michael Adebowale, 22, are under guard in hospital after being shot and arrested by police after the murder of 25-year-old Afghan war veteran Lee Rigby on Wednesday. They have not yet been charged. ...

By Silvia Antonioli LONDON (Reuters) - Mid-sized producer Jindal Steel and Power hopes to quadruple steel output by 2016 to cash in on an infrastructure boom in the world's second most populous country and is also in talks to buy mining assets in West Africa. V. R. Sharma, head of steel operations at one of India's largest producers, told Reuters he was targeting a rise in output to 16 million tonnes per year by 2016 from 4 million now thanks to new steelmaking plants in India and Oman. ...

By Sarah Marsh BERLIN (Reuters) - Blood-red bricks of wax are shifted by conveyor belts up metal chutes towards the centre of an atrium before thudding down and splattering like entrails, in a monumental new installation created by artist Anish Kapoor for his new show in Berlin. A giant, dark sun-like red disk hovers above the ever-growing heaps of wax splodges in "Symphony for a Beloved Sun", which opens Kapoor's first major exhibit in Berlin, running until November 24 in the Martin Gropius Bau exhibition hall. ...

By Alexandria Sage CANNES (Reuters) - America's immigration debate finds echos in a period drama that premiered at the Cannes film festival on Friday about a Polish woman who arrives at Ellis Island and fights to survive in 1920s New York. "The Immigrant" features French Oscar winner Marion Cotillard as the immigrant Ewa, speaking English and Polish in the film, with Joaquin Phoenix and Jeremy Renner as the two men with whom she becomes entangled as she is forced into prostitution. ...

By Mike Davidson CANNES (Reuters) - An Iranian director who was jailed for anti-government propaganda in 2010 emerged at the Cannes film festival on Friday to premiere a new film about state oppression that he shot in secret in his home country. Mohammad Rasoulof was found guilty of "actions and propaganda against the system" after trying to make a documentary about the unrest that followed the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009. He was jailed for six years and banned from making films and leaving Iran for 20 years. ...

Kolkata, May 24 (IANS) Keeper-willower Dishant Yagnik played a cameo as Rajasthan Royals rode on a late batting surge to post a decent 165/6 in their Indian Premier League playoff at the Eden Gardens here Friday.

New Delhi, May 24 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Friday quashed an FIR and summoning order against three Delhi Jal Board employees, accused of gangraping an executive working in a private company.

Mumbai, May 24 (IANS) Filmmaker Nikhil Adwani, who is gearing up for his film "D-Day" says Mumbai bomb blast "affected" his life and that inspired him to make this film.

Kolkata, May 24 (IANS) Rajasthan Royals scored 165 for six against Mumbai Indiansin the Indian Premier League's (IPL) second qualifier at the Eden Gardens here Friday.

London, May 24 (IANS) Britain had to scramble fighter jets Friday to escort a Pakistani International Airlines (PIA) plane down to land after it was diverted from Manchester. Later, two people were arrested from aboard the aircraft on suspicion of endangering the flight.

London, May 24 (IANS) Britain had to scramble fighter jets Friday for escorting a Pakistani International Airlines (PIA) plane after it was diverted from Manchester. Later, two people were arrested on suspicion of endangering the aircraft's flight.

Chandigarh, May 24 (IANS) A court in Harayana's Sonipat town Friday sentenced a man to 10 years rigorous imprisonment for the rape of a first-year law student of Haryana's all-women university, Bhagat Phool Singh Women's University.

New Delhi, May 24 (IANS) Hours after its spokesperson demanded resignation of Indian cricket board chief N. Srinivasan over his son-in-law's name figuring in the investigations into the IPL spot fixing scandal, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Friday sought to distance itself from the demand.

Darjeeling, May 24 (IANS) The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) Friday called an indefinite shutdown in north Bengal's Darjeeling hills from Sunday to protest the arrest of an elected member of the hill development body for alleged involvement in arson and violence.

Washington, May 24 (IANS) Indian Ambassador Nirupama Rao has hailed Indian-American Srikanth 'Sri' Srinivasan's Senate confirmation as a top US judge as yet another proof of the Indian community's "sterling contributions to the US society and India-US relations".

Moscow, May 24 (IANS/RIA Novosti) A male polar bear in Russia's Siberia region is to be transferred from one zoo to another in a bid to produce offspring, a zoo official said.

Kolkata, May 24 (IANS) Actor Deepika Padukone finds 'Dil Jumping Zapak' - the peppy theme song of the sixth season of Indian Premier League - "most catchy" of all the IPL tunes.

New Delhi, May 24 (IANS) A Delhi court sent five spot fixing scam accused, including two former cricketers, to judicial custody till June 4.