A series of explosions on Friday ripped through a house rumoured to be serving as an arms depot in south Lebanon, an area considered a Hezbollah stronghold, state media reported.

The state-run National News Agency said the blasts were in a three-storey building that was being used as an arms warehouse on the outskirts of the town of Shehabiyeh, just south of the Litani River, an area under surveillance of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

But the agency later withdrew its report, saying only that a series of explosions had been heard in the area.

Australian fifth seed Samantha Stosur, this year's French Open runner-up, advanced to the fourth round of the US Open on Friday by defeating Italy's 37th-ranked Sara Errani 6-2, 6-3.

Stosur will play Russian 12th seed Elena Dementieva, who ousted Slovakian 24th seed Daniela Hantuchova 7-5, 6-2, for a quarter-final berth. Dementieva is 4-1 lifetime against Stosur, winning all four of their hardcourt matchups.

The European Union's trade chief battled on Friday to fend off accusations of anti-Semitism after referring to the power of a "Jewish lobby" in US policy.

European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht also suggested that it was difficult to have a "rational" conversation with most Jews about the Middle East conflict.

The European Jewish Congress demanded an apology and full retraction from De Gucht, whose comments came on the heels of a German central banker's controversial statement that "all Jews share a certain gene."

Dani Pedrosa, victorious at Indianapolis last week, demonstrated his pace-setting skills again on Friday when he clocked the fastest time in practice for Sunday's San Marino Grand Prix.

The Honda rider clocked 1min 34.772sec to edge out stable-mate Andrea Dovizioso by 0.612sec, with Yamaha pair Jorge Lorenzo, the championship leader, and Valentino Rossi, the defending world champion, filling the top four.

Shipowners are showing growing interest in a fabled trade route to Asia which climate change is beginning to open up at last as polar ice recedes.

On Saturday the first non-Russian vessel to make an intercontinental commercial voyage through the Arctic Northeast passage will set sail from Norway for China.

The route is thousands of kilometres (miles) shorter than traditional passages, promising to reduce travel time dramatically, along with fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

German President Christian Wulff inaugurated on Friday a new synagogue in the western city of Mainz, on the very site where Nazis destroyed the previous one more than 70 years ago.

"Exactly 98 years after the opening of the last major synagogue in Mainz, the Jewish community once again will have an architectural and religious centre," Wulff said at the official ceremony.

"Anti-semitism, racism and xenophobia in all its forms represent today one of the great evils of our times," he added.

At just 23 years old, Maria Sharapova considers herself still to be in the bloom of youth, but things are moving fast.

Her third-round match at the US Open on Saturday will see her take on 18-year-old American wildcard Beatrice Capra, who idolised the Russian glamour girl as she was growing up.

It all comes as a bit of a shock to Sharapova, who won Wimbledon in 2004 as a precocious 17-year-old and who was ranked number one in the world a year later.

World number three Novak Djokovic's path to a fourth consecutive US Open semi-finals appearance has a tricky third-round obstacle Saturday in US danger man James Blake.

The 23-year-old Serbian and 30-year-old Blake, a former world number four fallen to 108th in the rankings after injuries, will meet at Arthur Ashe Stadium, where the American veteran figures to be a huge crowd favorite.

Google-owned videosharing website YouTube is expected to turn a profit this year on revenue of 450 million dollars, The New York Times reported Friday.

The newspaper, in an article about the rise of advertising on YouTube, said the site's revenue has more than doubled each year for the last three years.

Google does not release revenue figures for YouTube, which the Internet search giant bought for 1.65 billion dollars in 2006, but senior executives have suggested recently that it is near profitability.

England called up Ajmal Shahzad into their Twenty20 squad for a two-match series against Pakistan after pace bowler Stuart Broad suffered a groin problem during training on Friday.

Broad was unable to complete the practice session but an England spokesman explained the decision to call up Yorkshire seamer Shahzad - already in the one-day international squad to take on Pakistan this month - was simply a precautionary move.

"We are covering all bases, just in case," the spokesman said.