AP - In the rural outskirts of Baghdad, where the war seems distant in Iraq's new period of relative calm, a prominent Sunni tribal chief makes no bones about what is lacking in the drive to turn security improvements into lasting economic and political change.

AP - Negotiators from six nations agreed have agreed on steps to verify North Korea's nuclear disarmament, opening the final phase in tortuous efforts to rid the North of nuclear weapons.

AP - Pope Benedict XVI departs Saturday on a 10-day trip to Australia, the longest pilgrimage of his papacy and a test of the 81-year-old pontiff's stamina.

AFP - China's UN ambassador said Friday he was concerned at reports that Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir might be arrested over crimes against humanity in Darfur, warning such a move would put peace prospects "in jeopardy."

AFP - International Criminal Court prosecutors will seek the arrest of Sudan President Omar al-Beshir for genocide in Darfur, it emerged Friday, prompting Khartoum to warn of a threat to peace efforts.

AP - Police revealed stinging new allegations against Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday, accusing him of pocketing tens of thousands of dollars by deceiving multiple sources into paying for the same trips abroad.

AP - Nigerian medical student George Itoro Ebong says he was waiting for a bus in central Kiev last year when three young men ran up, shouted racially charged insults at him and smashed a bottle over his head.

AP - Lebanon's prime minister has formed a national unity Cabinet in which Hezbollah and its allies have veto power over government decisions.

AP - A soldier fatally shot a South Korean tourist Friday at a resort in North Korea, prompting the South to suspend a high-profile tourism program just as the president was seeking to repair strained ties with his communist neighbor.

AP - U.N. officials and diplomats said the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court will seek an arrest warrant Monday charging Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur.

AP - U.S. forces may be close to unlocking the mystery of who is behind a deadly innovation in Iraqi insurgents' weapons, a "lob bomb" now being used in Baghdad to target U.S. and Iraqi combat outposts, a senior American general said Friday in an Associated Press interview.

AP - Thousands of pilgrims converged on Sydney as it braced Friday for the weekend arrival of the pope and the start of World Youth Day, the biggest event held in Australia since the 2000 Olympics.

AFP - North Korean soldiers shot dead a tourist from South Korea on Friday, casting a shadow over an offer of talks from the South's new leader to help ease tensions across the world's last Cold War frontier.