AFP - Chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff Admiral Michael Mullen Friday sought to ease tensions with Pakistan after an incident on the Afghan-Pakistan border, urging calm cooperation.

AFP - As a desert kidnap drama entered its second week, 11 European tourists and eight Egyptians are still being held in Libya by their captors, a leading Sudanese official said on Friday.

AP - The list of products caught in China's tainted milk scandal grew Friday to include baby cereal in Hong Kong and snack foods in Japan, while Taiwan reported three children and a mother with kidney stones in the island's first cases possibly linked to the crisis.

AP - Police raided a militant hide-out in southern Pakistan, triggering a gunbattle during which three suicide bombers blew themselves up along with a handcuffed prisoner, officials said.

AP - Russia and the United States have agreed to seek a new U.N. resolution calling on Iran to comply with previous demands to suspend uranium enrichment but imposing no new sanctions, U.N. diplomats said Friday.

AP - Russia's navy dispatched a warship to Somalia's coast, officials said Friday, a day after pirates there carried out their boldest attack yet — the capture of a Ukrainian vessel manned with Russian and Ukranian crew and loaded with 33 tanks and ammunition bound for Kenya.

AP - Pakistan warned U.S. troops not to intrude on its territory on Friday, a day after the two anti-terror allies traded fire along the volatile border with Afghanistan.

AP - Sri Lankan military helicopters attacked Tamil Tiger sea fighters in the country's north, while ground fighting across the region killed 20 insurgents, the military said Friday.

AP - After nearly 20 years of violent chaos, Islamic extremism and failed peace talks, impoverished Somalia might seem to have hit rock-bottom. But things are getting worse. The crisis is exceeding even the direst scenarios laid out nearly two years ago, when troops from neighboring Ethiopia arrived to oust a radical Islamic militia and support the Western-backed government.

AP - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was expected to watch a major Russian military exercise Friday, a display of muscle and a signal of tightening cooperation between two countries seeking to decrease U.S. global clout.

AFP - Banking giant HSBC is to cut 1,100 jobs worldwide because of the volatile global financial environment, a spokesman said Friday.

AP - China launched a three-man crew into space Thursday night, including one who will make the country's first spacewalk — its most challenging mission since its first orbital flight in 2003.