AFP - Efforts to agree on a framework for talks aimed at ending Zimbabwe's political crisis stalled Thursday as state media accused the opposition leader of pulling out of a deal at the last moment.

AP - Argentina's Senate has narrowly rejected a grain-export tax package whose proposal has led to nationwide farm strikes and regional food shortages.

AP - When they talk of their government's failure, South Africans in the tangle of shacks and narrow lanes that is Alexandra point to an unfinished modern brick and steel building near the edge of the township.

AP - It's quiet around here in farm country, south of Baghdad where al-Qaida once held sway. Just months ago U.S. foot patrols through the wheat fields nearby would regularly draw fire — if the soldiers managed first to elude al-Qaida-planted roadside bombs.

AP - Thousands of mourners gathered Thursday in a northern Israeli town to bury the first of two soldiers returned in a prisoner exchange with Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas.

AP - The world's natural resources are being squandered in the pursuit of "insatiable consumption," Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday in a speech urging followers to care more for the environment and reconnect with the principle of peace.

AP - Pope Benedict XVI ended a short vacation with a visit from some of Australia's exotic animals then took up residence in a gothic cathedral on Wednesday to prepare for his debut in front of some 200,000 pilgrims at the Roman Catholic youth festival.

AFP - The US-led coalition in Afghanistan admitted Wednesday to killing eight civilians during an air strike against militants, as an Afghan official said nine women and a boy had died.