AP - An alleged al-Qaida recruiter said Friday he wants nothing to do with his trial at Guantanamo Bay, calling it a "legal farce" and telling his Pentagon-appointed lawyer not to defend him.

AP - A passenger van packed with explosives blew up Friday at a bus station north of Baghdad where Shiite pilgrims had stopped for the night, killing four people and wounding dozens, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

AP - A top Russian general said Friday that Poland's agreement to accept a U.S. missile interceptor base exposes the ex-communist nation to attack, possibly by nuclear weapons, the Interfax news agency reported.

AP - U.S.-led forces have killed more than 36 insurgents in a series of clashes and airstrikes in southern Afghanistan, the coalition said Friday. A militant attack on NATO patrol killed two alliance's troops.

AP - With impeachment proceedings looming, the pressure on President Pervez Musharraf to quit built Friday as both his rivals and allies confirmed back-channel talks were under way that could ease him out.

AP - A reluctant Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said Friday he signed a cease-fire agreement with Russia and declared in the presence of the chief U.S. diplomat that the West had behaved in ways that invited the invasion.

AP - Minutes after a suicide bomber killed 25 people, hundreds of angry Kurds stormed the headquarters of an ethnic Turkish group in this northern Iraqi city and torched the building and nearby parked cars.

AP - Western leaders engaged in intense diplomacy Friday to persuade Russia to pull troops out of Georgia, but tensions soared after a top Russian general warned that Poland had exposed itself to attack by striking a missile defense deal with the United States.

AP - Zimbabwe's opposition leaders are in South Africa for talks with regional leaders on the eve of a summit expected to focus on their country's political crisis.

AP - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is accusing the United States of masterminding the current conflict between Georgia and Russia.

AP - As of Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008, at least 4,141 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

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.