AP - A Canadian schoolteacher who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy was sentenced Friday to 3 years and 3 months in jail in Thailand.

AP - Iraqi Shiite assassination teams are being trained in at least four locations in Iran by Tehran's elite Quds force and Lebanese Hezbollah and are planning to return to Iraq in the next few months to kill specific Iraqi officials as well as U.S. and Iraqi troops, according to intelligence gleaned from captured militia fighters and other sources in Iraq.

AP - Talks are under way that could lead to the resignation of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf or else reduce his role to that of a figurehead, an ally of the embattled leader said Friday.

AP - Russian troops are still blocking entrance to the city of Gori in war-battered Georgia. Doubt remains about whether Russia will honor an agreement to pull back its forces.

AP - Choosing expediency over principle, the United States and its allies are pushing Georgia's pro-Western government to accept major concessions in a cease-fire with Russia.

AFP - Nigeria's most prominent armed group in the restive Niger Delta, MEND, said Thursday it had rescued and will soon release two German construction workers seized last month by unknown gunmen.

AP - A military judge on Thursday barred a Pentagon official from taking part in a second war crimes trial at Guantanamo Bay, providing more ammunition for detainee lawyers who allege that political interference taints the proceedings.

AP - The U.S. Navy says six sailors have been charged with abusing detainees at U.S. detention center in Iraq and they will face court-martials.

AFP - Portsmouth and football agent Willie McKay were charged by the English Football Association on Thursday with breaches of rules in relation to the transfer of Benjani Mwaruwari to and from the club.

AP - An explosion targeting international troops on a foot patrol in southern Afghanistan killed three members of the U.S.-led coalition Thursday, the coalition said.

AP - A police crackdown meant to quell militants in China's rugged frontier of Xinjiang has failed to prevent a surge of attacks, and analysts say Beijing's tactics may actually be encouraging more violence among the region's usually moderate Muslims.

AP - A female suicide bomber struck Shiite pilgrims south of Baghdad, killing at least 26 people and wounding dozens, police said. It was the deadliest in a series of attacks on travelers heading to the holy city of Karbala for a major religious festival.

AP - Poland and the United States reached an agreement Thursday that will see a battery of American missiles established inside Poland, the prime minister said, announcing a plan that has infuriated Russia and raised the specter of an escalation of tension with the region's communist-era master.

AP - GORI, Georgia (AP — Russian troops searched selected cities, forests and fields in Georgia on Thursday, looking for military equipment left behind by Georgian forces. In Moscow, Russia's foreign minister declared Georgia could "forget about" regaining its two separatist provinces.