Madonna says she's happy that Malawi's former vice president is now leading the country.

Joy Banda became president Saturday and is the country's first women leader. Former president Bingu Wa Mutharika died of a heart attack on April 5.

Clashes between the Syrian army and rebel fighters broke out Friday for the first time since a hard-won U.N.-backed ceasefire came into force a day earlier, a monitoring group said.

"Fighting with heavy machineguns took place in Khirbet al-Joz, located on the Turkish border, between regime soldiers and (army) deserters," Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Agence France Presse.

North Korea's much-anticipated rocket launch ended quickly in an embarrassing failure early Friday, splintering into pieces over the Yellow Sea soon after takeoff.

Within minutes of the early morning launch, the U.S. and South Korea declared it a failure. North Korea acknowledged that hours later in an announcement broadcast on state TV, saying the satellite had failed to enter into orbit.

Faced with mounting losses, Sony Corp. said Thursday it will slash 10,000 jobs, or about 6 percent of its global workforce, and turn around its money-losing TV business over the next two years.

New CEO and President Kazuo Hirai outlined his business strategy at a press conference where he pledged to revive the electronics and entertainment company. Sony earlier this week more than doubled its annual net loss projection for the fiscal year through this past March to 520 billion yen, or $6.4 billion. That would be its fourth straight year of red ink and worst loss ever.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. previewed its "Disc to Digital" service for converting DVDs into an online library on Wednesday. Based on my experience, I'd give it a six out of 10.

That's the number of discs I was able to convert from a completely unscientific sampling of my personal DVD library.

Scientists are blaming slightly higher levels of carbon dioxide in Pacific Ocean waters linked to global warming for the failure of oyster larvae to survive in an Oregon hatchery.

They say higher acidity of the water that comes with more carbon dioxide makes it harder for young oysters to form their shells, dooming them in a matter of days, even if they are moved to more favorable environments.

A ceasefire in Syria appeared to be holding on Thursday, as the Syrian government and its foes traded charges of trying to wreck U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan.

Renewed bloodshed on Thursday killed at least 23 people, putting to the test the hard-won ceasefire plan.

Poor Instagram users.

First, their beloved photo-sharing application moves from iPhone-only exclusivity to the Android phone masses. A week later, Facebook swallows up the tiny startup behind the app for $1 billion. The purchase sparked worries that Facebook might shutter Instagram or change it for the worse by harvesting their personal information or shoving ads into their carefully curated photo streams.

Luxury automaker BMW AG says its worldwide sales rose to a new record for the first quarter, fueled by rising deliveries in China and the United States.

The company said Wednesday that January-March deliveries by the BMW Group — which also includes the Mini and Rolls-Royce brands — were 11.2 percent higher than a year earlier at 425,528 vehicles.

Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal will play an exhibition match at Real Madrid's football stadium, hoping for a crowd of 80,000 to watch tennis' top two players.

Madrid says on its website that the top-ranked Djokovic and local favorite Nadal will meet on July 14 at the Santiago Bernabeu, with proceeds going to the club's and Nadal's charity foundations.