AP - Russia took the first steps toward a troop pullback from Georgia on Tuesday but at the same time paraded blindfolded and bound Georgian prisoners on armored vehicles and seized four U.S. Humvees.

AP - French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited a military chapel in Kabul on Wednesday where the bodies of 10 French soldiers killed in battle lay before they were to be flown home.

AP - President Bush is defending his line-in-the-sand approach to the fight against Islamic terrorism, following presidential rivals John McCain and Barack Obama in a speech to a major veterans group.

AP - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans Wednesday to sign a deal to build a U.S. missile defense base on Polish soil, an agreement that has already prompted an infuriated Russia to threaten its former Soviet satellite.

AP - Tropical Storm Fay continued its erratic path Wednesday reaching the coast and headed for the Atlantic Ocean, where it could strengthen and curve back toward Florida — possibly as a hurricane.

AFP - Pakistan's ruling coalition met Tuesday to discuss a replacement for President Pervez Musharraf, as the deaths of 41 people in Islamist violence underscored the challenges facing the government.

AFP - Ten French NATO soldiers were killed in a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday, the deadliest ground attack on foreign troops here since the US-led war was launched in 2001.

Reuters - A day after President Pervez Musharraf quit, leaders of Pakistan's fractious coalition government squabbled over the judiciary on Tuesday and a bomb killed 25 people, underscoring the challenges facing the nation.

Reuters - Iran's attempt to launch a dummy satellite into orbit was a "dramatic failure" that fell far short of the country's assertions of success, a U.S. official said on Tuesday

Reuters - Taliban insurgents killed 10 French soldiers and wounded 21 in a major battle in Afghanistan, the French president's office said on Tuesday, the biggest single loss of foreign troops in combat there since 2001.

Reuters - Tropical Storm Fay swept into southwest Florida from the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, dumping heavy rain but causing little damage after failing to strengthen into a hurricane as forecasters had predicted.

Reuters - Next Olympics hosts Britain reached their highest gold medal tally in a century on Tuesday with four victories including one from a once-banned runner.

Reuters - A column of Russian tanks and armored vehicles left the strategic Georgian town of Gori on Tuesday, but NATO said it was freezing contacts with Moscow until all Russian forces were out of the Black Sea state.

Reuters - U.S. wholesale prices shot up in July at the fastest annual rate in 27 years, while home builders cut back on construction as they worked through a glut of unsold homes, government data showed on Tuesday.

Reuters - Speculation on the U.S. vice presidential sweepstakes hit fever pitch on Tuesday, with Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain nearing their choices of a No. 2 amid sly hints and outright guesses.