AFP - Bradford & Bingley said on Friday that US investment group TPG Capital had pulled out of an agreement to buy about one quarter of the struggling British bank.
AP - The plan was nothing if not audacious: A turncoat persuades rebels to bring together their most prized hostages and march them 90 miles through Colombia's wilderness. A month later, disguised commandos primed with acting lessons land in a helicopter and trick the rebels into handing them over.
AP - Between surging oil prices, food inflation and a credit crunch that's depressed global growth, leaders from the Group of Eight economic powers face the gravest combination of economic woes in at least a decade when they gather next week.
AP - Hugo Chavez, once a key mediator in securing hostage releases from Colombian rebels, could do little more than phone congratulations to President Alvaro Uribe after this week's bold rescue.
AP - Alexander Downer announced Thursday he is quitting Australian politics following a career as the country's longest-serving foreign minister and one of its highest-profile leaders of the past decade.
AFP - Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina hit sparkling half-centuries to inspire India to the final of the Asia Cup with a six-wicket over Sri Lanka in a Super League match here Thursday.
AP - More than 20,000 Africans have crossed the Gulf of Aden to Yemen this year, paying brutal smugglers who cram them into boats and often throw the weakest overboard, an aid group said Thursday. -- read full article
AP - A spokesman for the U.S. mission here on Thursday denied Cuba's charge that American diplomats were instigating opposition protests linked to American independence day.
AFP - European Union environment ministers cleared some ground Thursday as they debated how to achieve the vaunted dream of slashing the 27-nation bloc's carbon pollution by 2020.
AP - Not so long ago, the U.S. enjoyed something akin to a mythical status in Poland. Ronald Reagan was a hero, the dollar was king and Washington was a trusted guardian against Russia.
