AP - Foreign aid agencies Saturday called on Myanmar's junta to urgently clarify the rules for operating in the country's cyclone-devastated areas, expressing hope tinged with skepticism after the regime promised to open its doors to the international community.

AP - China's earthquake death toll jumped to more than 60,000 and Premier Wen Jiabao said it could rise to more than 80,000 as he and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited the disaster area Saturday.

AFP - Australia's first female Anglican bishop has denied that her appointment will lead to a split within the church despite lingering opposition to women priests.

Reuters - Myanmar's military government agreed on Friday to allow aid workers into the country "regardless of nationalities," a breakthrough for delivering assistance to cyclone survivors, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said.

AP - U.N. experts investigating violations of an arms embargo against Somalia report that countries and private traders are supplying weapons to warlords and militants, South Africa's U.N. ambassador said Thursday.

AP - Colombia's chief prosecutor opened preliminary investigations Thursday into contacts between leftist rebels and prominent politicians, journalists and foreigners — including a U.S. consultant.

AP - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday faced a second police interrogation about corruption allegations that threaten his political survival and Israeli efforts for peace with Syria and the Palestinians.

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 - Three militants were killed in an Israeli airstrike, Palestinian medical officials said Friday.

AP - The German parliament's upper house has approved the new European Union treaty.

AP - Earthquake survivors living downstream from lakes formed by blocked rivers were being evacuated for fears that aftershocks could unleash flooding, and the death toll from the disaster rose Friday to more than 55,000.

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.