AP - The government offices in Iraq's Diyala province are encased in thick blast walls, a shield against suicide bombings. Nearby buildings are pockmarked from fighting between U.S. troops and Sunni insurgents.

AFP - Nuwan Kulasekara wrecked India's top order with a career-best haul of 4-40 to bowl Sri Lanka to a consolation 112-run victory in the fifth and final one-day international here on Friday.

AFP - Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete said Friday that US President George W. Bush had done more for Africa than any of his predecessors and thanked him for his help on crises in Zimbabwe and Darfur.

AP - Deadly Gustav drenched Jamaica and menaced the Cayman Islands on Friday, and on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall, forecasters said for the first time there's a better-than-even chance that New Orleans will get slammed by tropical storm-force winds.

AP - Iran has increased the number of operating centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant to 4,000, a top official said Friday, pushing ahead with the nuclear program despite threats of new U.N. sanctions.

AFP - England captain Kevin Pietersen said he would go for the jugular after seeing his side take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the one-day series against South Africa at the Oval on Friday.

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.