AP - A series of clashes, airstrikes and bomb blasts left 10 militants and four civilians killed in Afghanistan, officials said Saturday.

AP - Acrid smoke from charcoal-making blankets this Amazon logging town with the smell of business as usual. Less than three months ago, federal agents swooped in to close sawmills, confiscate wood and smash charcoal furnaces in a government crackdown on illegal logging.

AP - A French navy ship carrying 1,000 tons of food idled near Myanmar's coast Saturday, awaiting permission from the uncooperative ruling military regime to dock in the cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy delta.

AP - President Bush pivoted to the Arab side of the Mideast peace dispute on Saturday, but he may well get a less glowing reception than he did in Israel earlier this week.

AP - Thousands of Chinese earthquake victims fled areas near the epicenter Saturday, fearful of potential floods from a river blocked by landslides.

AFP - Protesting pensioners brought traffic to a stand still in Australia's second largest city on Friday when some stripped to demand more money from the government.

AFP - The Dalai Lama insisted on Friday that he is not seeking independence for Tibet, as he pressed ahead with a five-country Western tour two months after deadly violence erupted in his homeland.

AFP - Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will return to Zimbabwe on Saturday after more than a month out of the country following disputed elections, officials in his Movement for Democratic Change party said.

AP - For thoroughbred racehorses in Puerto Rico, success can be a matter of life and death. Many losers don't make it off the racetrack grounds alive.

AP - The Sichuan government says the official death toll from this week's powerful earthquake in the Chinese province has risen to 21,000 people.

AFP - An Afghan man involved in a hijacking eight years ago was arrested after being found working as a cleaner for British Airways near Heathrow Airport, officials and a press report said Friday.

AP - President Bush put the finishing touch on his celebrate-and-be-celebrated Israel stay, leaving the Holy Land Friday with no movement on Mideast peace but hoping to fare better in Saudi Arabia at obtaining help for soaring gas prices at home.

AP - Myanmar's junta warned Thursday it will punish anyone found hoarding or trading foreign aid meant for cyclone survivors, but relief groups said they had seen no evidence of people selling or stockpiling donated goods.

AP - Al-Qaida will continue its holy war against Israel and its allies until it liberates Palestine, Osama bin Laden said in a new audio statement Friday.