AP - The first of the major Mardi Gras parades with marching bands, brightly decorated floats and flying plastic beads rolled down New Orleans' streets Saturday, greeted by small but celebratory crowds.

AP - The first of the major Mardi Gras parades with marching bands, brightly decorated floats and flying plastic beads rolled down New Orleans' streets Saturday, greeted by small but celebratory crowds.

AP - Haitians celebrated in the streets Thursday as word quickly spread that Rene Preval will be Haiti's next president. A former Haitian leader with a huge following among the poor, Preval was declared the winner of the Feb. 7 election after thousands of blank ballots were subtracted from the count, giving him a 51.15 percent of the votes.

Reuters - New Orleans residents began the first post-Katrina Mardi Gras parade season with a mixture of pride, defiance and a touch of nonchalance.

AP - Thousands of chanting supporters of presidential candidate Rene Preval marched from a seaside slum past the national palace in a victory celebration Saturday as electoral officials continued counting ballots that have given Preval a wide lead.

Reuters - Denmark said on Saturday it had withdrawn diplomats and staff from Indonesia and Iran because of security threats, while Muslims held demonstrations in European cities over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

AP - Chad Hedrick began his quest to equal Eric Heiden's record of five gold medals in a Winter Olympics, winning the 5,000 meters Saturday. The brash-talking Texan speedskater covered the grueling 12 1/2 laps in 6 minutes, 14.68 seconds, about 17 hours after marching in the opening ceremony of his first games.

AFP - Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters are expected to rally in the Thai capital for the second straight week, in a critical test for Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

AFP - Muslims across Asia have vented their anger over satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, as a leading politician blamed Western nations for a "huge chasm" between the West and Islam.

World leaders have called for calm over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed as deadly violence spilled into a third day in Afghanistan. Wire reports said police shot dead two protesters to stop an angry crowd from marching on a U.S. military base in southern Afghanistan.

Reuters - Lebanese security forces fired tear gas at a crowd of about 20,000 marching toward the Danish embassy on Sunday to protest against the publication by European newspapers of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.