AP - It took a few months. But the economic woes touched off by soaring oil prices and the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States are finally engulfing Europe.

AP - Two months after an earthquake ravaged much of Sichuan province, workers are diligently salvaging bricks to restore a 6th century Taoist temple damaged in the disaster.

AP - While movie fans the world over rave about the new Batman film, the only stir bats are causing in this poor farming village is in a cooking pot.

AP - Nelson Mandela celebrated his 90th birthday Friday by urging the wealthy to share their prosperity with the less fortunate and by saying he wished he had been able to spend more time with his family during the anti-apartheid struggle.

AP - There is a Baghdad that Sen. Barack Obama probably won't see.

AFP - Pope Benedict XVI warned Christian leaders Friday the push to unite Christian churches was at a "critical juncture", as Anglicans met to avert a schism over the ordination of women and gays.

AP - Airlines are being told to stay away from Beijing's airport during the opening ceremony of the Olympics and further scrutiny is being applied to foreign entertainers in the latest security moves ahead of next month's games.

Reuters - World powers should heed the worries of African and Arab states in responding to genocide charges against Sudan's president, China's envoy on Darfur said, warning that the court steps could imperil peace efforts.

AP - Hurricane Elida weakened to a Category 1 storm off Mexico on Thursday, while Tropical Storm Fausto continued to gain strength.

AP - Thousands of Israelis prayed and cried at funerals Thursday for two soldiers whose return from Lebanon in black coffins touched off a nationwide wave of anguish.

AFP - Sprinter Dwain Chambers will discover on Friday if he can compete in next month's Beijing Olympics as the High Court prepapres to give its ruling over his bid to get a temporary injunction against his lifetime Olympic ban.

AP - Top diplomats from the U.S. and North Korea will meet next week along with their counterparts from regional nuclear talks, a South Korean official said Friday, the highest level of contact between the countries amid recent progress on Pyongyang's disarmament.

AP - Iraq's government hopes to bring the entire country under its security control by year's end. But one critical area stands in the way: the western province of Anbar, where the Sunni insurgency was born and later received its first blows from a civil uprising.

AP - Salim Hamdan is a small player with a big role. A former driver for Osama bin Laden, he is about to become the first Guantanamo prisoner to be tried for war crimes in a major test of the U.S. system for prosecuting alleged terrorists.

AP - Inferior electrical work by private contractors on U.S. military bases in Iraq is more widespread than the Pentagon has acknowledged, according to a published report.