AP - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on a mission to open Myanmar to international disaster assistance, said the ruling junta agreed Friday to allow "all aid workers" into the country to help cyclone survivors.

AFP - Myanmar's junta has for the first time allowed a US government relief expert into the cyclone-hit country, but his visit is limited and his colleagues remain barred, a US official said Thursday.

AFP - The Nigerian military said Thursday it had thwarted an attack on an oil facility belonging to Royal Dutch Shell, killing two assailants in the process.

AP - Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric has been quietly issuing religious edicts declaring that armed resistance against U.S.-led foreign troops is permissible — a potentially significant shift by a key supporter of the Washington-backed government in Baghdad.

AP - The children's faces stare in somber black-and-white photos from newspapers and scribbled posters at relief camps, seeking their parents. Many will never find them.

AP - A U.S. helicopter strike north of Baghdad killed eight civilians, including several children, an Iraqi police official said Thursday. The U.S. military said the assault targeted al-Qaida fighters but acknowledged that children died.

AP - Indians fish from canoes along the curves of this Amazon tributary and tend manioc crops near the site of a proposed dam talked about for decades — but now pushing forward under Brazil's multi-billion-dollar construction spree.

AP - China said the toll of dead and missing from last week's powerful earthquake jumped to more than 80,000, while the government appealed Thursday for millions of tents to shelter homeless survivors.

AP - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon surveyed devastated sections of Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta on Thursday and said he was very upset by the conditions of cyclone survivors.

AFP - Forty-five Nigerian soldiers who just returned from a peacekeeping mission in Darfur have been killed in a road accident in the north of Nigeria, the army's chief of staff said Thursday.

AP - Israel's foreign minister is calling on Syria to cut its ties with Arab militant groups if it wants to reach peace with Israel.

Reuters - French unions staged nationwide protests on Thursday against plans by President Nicolas Sarkozy to make people work longer to qualify for a full pension.

AP - President Lee Myung-bak apologized Thursday to South Koreans over a beef import accord with the United States that has sparked fears of mad cow disease and sent his popularity plummeting in his first months in office.