An Israeli soldier and a Palestinian militant died in a shootout between the militant and troops near the border with the Gaza Strip early Friday, the military said.

The exchange of fire began after the militant crossed the fence separating the Hamas-run coastal strip and southern Israel.

The villain in Lebanon's new hit war movie: a cigar-smoking Israeli army colonel who sports a cowboy hat and a handlebar mustache and repeatedly orders troops to shell Lebanese villages. The heroes: residents of one such village who band together to fight Israeli troops.

The film, 33 Days, tells the story of the 2006 war between Israel and the Lebanese group Hizbullah in one front-line village and glorifies "the resistance" — shorthand among many Lebanese for Hizbullah and other groups that fight Israel.

Grimacing in pain with almost every step, Andy Murray nearly had to call it quits Thursday because of a bad back at the French Open.

Instead, the fourth-seeded Brit rebounded from an awful first set to beat Jarkko Nieminen 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 and reach the third round.

The Vatican's official newspaper is for the first time in its more than 150-year history printing a special supplement for women, the publication said Wednesday.

The four-page color supplement, which will appear in Italian every last Thursday of the month in the L'Osservatore Romano, aims to promote better understanding of the "under-appreciated treasure" of women in the Church, the paper's director Giovanni Maria Vian told reporters.

The world's air has reached what scientists call a troubling new milestone for carbon dioxide, the main global warming pollutant.

Monitoring stations across the Arctic this spring are measuring more than 400 parts per million of the heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere. The number isn't quite a surprise, because it's been rising at an accelerating pace. Years ago, it passed the 350 ppm mark that many scientists say is the highest safe level for carbon dioxide. It now stands globally at 395.

It used to be that Venus Williams was the one who was highly ranked, the one considered a title contender, the one who would dominate foes so thoroughly that matches would be tidily wrapped up in an hour.

Now 31, and figuring out from day to day how to handle an illness that saps her strength, Williams was on the wrong end of a lopsided 60-minute defeat in the second round of the French Open on Wednesday.

Andie MacDowell will be a pioneer for the Hallmark Channel, starring in the network's first prime-time series.

Hallmark said Wednesday that MacDowell will portray municipal court Judge Olivia Lockhart in "Cedar Grove." It will start with a two-hour movie airing later this year and continue with a 13-episode series early in 2013.

Colombian superstar Juanes said singer-songwriter-producer Juan Luis Guerra got him out of his comfort zone when the musician started rearranging his songs for his "MTV Unplugged" taping.

And Juanes was happy to take on the challenge.

Roger Federer dropped a set before earning his record-breaking 234th Grand Slam match victory to reach the third round of the French Open.

Federer eliminated 92nd-ranked Adrian Ungur of Romania 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-3 Wednesday to break a tie with Jimmy Connors for most career wins at major tournaments in the Open era, which began in 1968.

The president of the Syrian Olympic Committee says nine athletes from the war-torn country have qualified for the London Olympics and will compete "despite all pressures, media war and threats to ban them."

Gen. Mowaffak Joumaa says Syria plans to send up to 10 athletes and several officials even though a travel ban looms against top officials.