AP - Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic made a defiant stand before a U.N. court preparing to try him on genocide charges, refusing to enter pleas Friday and branding the tribunal a NATO proxy out to "liquidate" him.

AP - Predictions that Pervez Musharraf will have to flee Pakistan to escape treason charges have died along with the coalition that drove him from the presidency.

AP - Omar Ahmed rarely emerges from his rundown Baghdad housing project. When he does, he leaves behind the Iraqi-issued ID card that marks him as a Palestinian and switches to the Iraqi dialect of Arabic at police checkpoints.

AP - Thai police used tear gas to disperse a crowd of several thousand anti-government protesters who were besieging city police headquarters. The prime minister said he might declare a state of emergency if the rioting worsens.

AP - Georgia said Friday it will sever diplomatic ties with Moscow to protest the presence of Russian troops on its territory. Russia criticized the move, pinning blame for a breakdown in relations on Tbilisi.

AFP - Australian safety investigators Friday blamed an exploding oxygen bottle for a mid-air blast which blew a gaping hole in a Qantas jet last month, and said they could not rule out it happening again.

Reuters - A suicide bomber tried to force his vehicle into a Pakistani military camp in the northwest on Friday but was blown up when soldiers opened fire on him, a day after dozens of people were killed in violence across the region

Reuters - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF has said there is no need for further power-sharing talks with the opposition, state media reported on Friday.

AP - An Argentine court convicted two former generals on Thursday for the murder of a senator during the country's seven-year military dictatorship and sentenced them to life in prison.

AP - Iran's official IRNA news agency says the government now has nearly 4,000 centrifuges operating in its uranium enrichment plant.

AFP - Celtic boss Gordon Strachan has said he is looking forward to another Champions League clash with old rivals Manchester United but he believes they will be even harder to beat than before.

AP - Air safety investigators confirmed Friday that an exploding oxygen cylinder ripped a gaping hole in a Qantas jet's fuselage midflight last month, but said they were no closer to solving the mystery of why the tank failed.

AP - The spinning core of Gustav bore down on southern Jamaica on Thursday after leaving 67 people dead in Hispaniola. Texas and Louisiana put their national guards on standby, and New Orleans said a mandatory evacuation might be necessary.

AP - Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is scheduled to enter pleas Friday at the U.N.'s Yugoslav war crimes tribunal to 11 charges that include genocide and crimes against humanity.

AP - Officials in South Ossetia say Russia intends eventually to absorb the breakaway Georgian province.