AFP - The Dalai Lama denounced Chinese repression in Tibet when he met French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner Friday on a trip to France that has fuelled tensions between Paris and Beijing.

AP - Spain's top aviation official said Friday that a glitch in an air temperature gauge that forced a Madrid jetliner to abandon its first takeoff attempt an hour before it crashed should be closely examined to see if it contributed to the accident.

AP - When Georgian rockets began falling on this sleepy capital of the breakaway province of South Ossetia, Zemfira Tibilova and her neighbors ran to a century-old brick synagogue.

AP - The crowd's hostility was unmistakable. Each time they passed Indian soldiers, thousands chanted the name of one of South Asia's most violent Islamic groups.

AP - Pakistan's main ruling party on Friday proposed the widower of assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto as Pakistan's next president, making Asif Ali Zardari the clear front-runner.

AP - Russian military convoys rolled out of three key positions in Georgia and headed toward Moscow-backed separatist regions Friday in a significant withdrawal two weeks after thousands of troops roared into the former Soviet republic.

AFP - Australia's competition watchdog raised concerns about mining giant BHP Billiton's bid for rival Rio Tinto Friday, saying the merger could hurt competition in the global trade of iron ore.

AFP - Tens of thousands of people massed in Indian Kashmir's main city on Friday to protest against India's rule, in the second major demonstration here this week.

AP - A navy coalition warship has been dispatched to track three vessels that were hijacked this week by armed pirates in an unprecedented series of attacks off the coast of Somalia, officials said Friday.

AFP - Global advertising giant WPP said Friday that the Beijing Olympic Games and the US presidential elections would boost its fortunes this year as it unveiled a 14.5-percent jump in first-half net profit.

AP - At the Russian-controlled roadblocks around Gori, the deadpan soldiers are firm but restrained, searching cars and checking identification, but not too rigorously.

AP - Iraq and the U.S. pushed close to a deal Thursday setting a course for American combat troops to pull out of major Iraqi cities by next June, with a broader withdrawal from the long and costly war by 2011.

AP - The pan-Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera says a North African branch of Al-Qaida has claimed responsibility for recent attacks in Algeria that killed 55 people.