AFP - British energy giant BP said on Tuesday that its net profit rallied by 28 percent to 9.47 billion dollars (6.02 billion euros) in the second quarter as oil prices surged to record highs.

AP - Just over a week before the Beijing Olympics, a militant Islamic group's claims of responsibility for bombings in China have fueled unease about security. The government has assured its people and the Olympic community that heavy security will ensure a secure games.

AP - An Iraqi military commander says a new U.S.-backed operation has begun in the volatile Diyala province northeast of Baghdad.

AP - Pakistan investigated reports Tuesday that a senior al-Qaida figure was among six people killed in a suspected U.S. missile strike amid anger that the attack had violated the Islamic nation's sovereignty.

AP - One of the defining features of Gen. David Petraeus' tenure as leader of U.S. forces in Iraq is an unusually close partnership with his political counterpart here, Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

AP - U.S. and Iraqi forces fanned out in the volatile Diyala province Tuesday in a new operation aimed at clearing al-Qaida in Iraq from safe havens in an area considered the last major insurgent belt around the capital.

AFP - A Qantas jet was forced to make an emergency landing at Adelaide airport Monday night because of a mechanical problem during a flight to Melbourne, reports said.

AP - Police raided the home of an American citizen in Mumbai, India's financial capital, and seized a computer from which an e-mail claiming responsibility for bombings that killed 45 people in western India was believed to have been sent, officials said Monday.

AFP - Former rebels from eastern Sudan are in talks to draw up an electoral alliance with counterparts in southern Sudan in a bid to unseat President Omar al-Beshir, one of its members said on Monday.

AP - Iran's president said in an interview broadcast Monday that he sees "common ground" with the West over his country's disputed nuclear program, and "new behavior" from the United States that could merit a positive response.

AP - French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy says her husband was not upset when he learned of all the nude photos she did during her modeling days.

AP - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan served as a pallbearer at a funeral Monday for some of the 17 people killed by bombs in Turkey's biggest city, an attack the government blamed on Kurdish rebels who have targeted civilians in the past.

AP - Israel's prime minister backed away Monday from a target date — announced with great fanfare at a U.S.-hosted Mideast peace conference last November — for reaching a deal with the Palestinians by year's end.