AP - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says the war in the Georgian region of South Ossetia show Russia is a "nation to be reckoned with."

AP - Hurricane Ike barreled toward the Turks and Caicos as a powerful Category 3 storm Saturday, prompting an exodus of tourists and locals from the normally idyllic Atlantic island chain.

AP - Receding waters in the starving Haitian city of Gonaives revealed the bodies of more victims in floods from Tropical Storm Hanna, as U.N. peacekeepers and aid groups struggled to feed thousands of people.

AP - Police say at least 12 people are dead after a suicide car bomber struck a security checkpoint in Pakistan's volatile northwest.

AP - Lawmakers were casting their votes Saturday in Pakistan's presidential election, a race where the favorite by far is the scandal-tainted pro-U.S. widower of slain ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

AFP - Lawyer, academic, women's activist and grandmother Quentin Bryce was sworn in as Australia's governor general Friday, the first woman to act as the British queen's representative Down Under.

AFP - Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus is threatening legal proceedings against Norwegian telecom operator Telenor to force it to transform their joint Bangladeshi subsidiary into a "social business" aimed at helping the poor.

AP - The Iraqi government reacted sharply Friday to published allegations that the U.S. spied on Iraq's prime minister, warning that future ties with the United States could be in jeopardy if the report is true.

AFP - Spanish police said Friday they had detained a top Colombian drug trafficker, Edgar Guillermo Vallejo Guarin, who was wanted in the United States and several other countries.

AP - The flagship of the U.S. Navy's Mediterranean fleet anchored outside a key Georgian port Friday, defiantly bringing in tons of humanitarian aid to a city still partly occupied by hundreds of Russian troops.

AP - Concern over upcoming elections and widening tensions among Iraq's religious and ethnic groups appear behind the U.S. military's recommendation to put the brakes on withdrawing more American troops from Iraq despite improvements in security.

AP - The likely next president of unstable, nuclear-armed Pakistan following Saturday's election is a horse-loving aristocrat who has spent more years in prison than in politics — a novice leader lifted to prominence by his marriage to Benazir Bhutto and propelled into power by her murder.

AP - The bearded, turbaned men gather beneath a large, leafy tree in rural eastern Nangarhar province. When Malik Mohammed speaks on their behalf, his voice is soft but his words are harsh. Mohammed makes it clear that the tribal chiefs have lost all faith in both their own government and the foreign soldiers in their country.