AP - Former Colombian rebel captive John Freddy Diaz knows something that recently freed hostages may just be discovering: The pain of a kidnapping doesn't end with liberation.

AP - Brick by brick and one cinderblock at a time, the residents of this Euphrates River village about 45 miles southwest of Baghdad are rebuilding homes that the U.S. military says al-Qaida destroyed while they occupied the area in 2006.

AP - Beijing's Olympic shutdown begins Sunday, a drastic plan to lift the Chinese capital's gray shroud of pollution just three weeks ahead of the games.

AP - Hitting the ground with enough force to lift a worker off the ground, one of the nation's largest mobile cranes collapsed at a Houston oil refinery, killing four workers and injuring seven others.

AP - John McCain was in his favorite campaign setting, a town hall meeting, when he spotted a promising target. "I'd love to recognize you first, sir," the Republican presidential candidate said to a man in a Vietnam War veteran's hat.

AP - Pope Benedict XVI used some of the strongest language yet in his apology Saturday for the sexual abuse of children by Australia's Roman Catholic clergy, but his words were just more of the same for the victims.

AP - Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday, the first stop on a campaign-season tour of war zones, a spokesman said.

AFP - US President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki have agreed to set a "time horizon" for US troop withdrawals as part of a long-term security pact, the White House said Friday.

AFP - Nelson Mandela, the icon of the anti-apartheid movement and South Africa's first black president, marked his 90th birthday on Friday with an appeal on behalf of his Rainbow Nation's poor.

Reuters - World powers should heed the worries of African and Arab states in responding to genocide charges against Sudan's president, China's envoy on Darfur said, warning that the court steps could imperil peace efforts.

Reuters - From banana imports to rules for protecting the product names, officials and diplomats were working on Friday on a range of issues ahead of next week's make-or-break ministerial trade negotiations.

Reuters - The NATO-led international force in Afghanistan rejected on Friday reports from Afghan officials that it killed more than 50 civilians in air strikes the previous day in the west of the country.

Reuters - Israel accused six Arabs on Friday of trying to set up an al Qaeda cell in Israel and said one of them had proposed attacking helicopters used during a visit by President George W. Bush.

Reuters - Iran said on Friday it did not expect an attack from Israel or the United States triggered by the long-running dispute over its nuclear program.