AP - A U.S. destroyer off the coast of Somalia closed in Saturday on a hijacked Ukrainian ship loaded with tanks and ammunition, watching it to ensure the pirates who seized it do not try to remove any cargo or crew.
Reuters - Up to A$12 billion ($10 billion) in illicit drug money could be flowing out of Australia every year, according to an estimate by the Australian Crime Commission (ACC). -- read full article
AFP - China's three astronauts prepared Saturday for the nation's first ever space walk as the country waited with bated breath to see if the manoeuvre, deemed highly risky, would be successful.
Reuters - The Libyan government rejected a Sudanese statement on Friday that kidnappers holding 11 European tourists and eight Egyptians had taken them from Sudan into Libya. -- read full article
AP - Voters are expected to easily approve this chronically unstable nation's 20th constitution on Sunday, expanding President Rafael Correa's powers and letting the pugnacious leftist run for two more consecutive terms.
AP - Taliban militants on Saturday released the last of approximately 150 Afghan laborers they had abducted for almost a week after suspecting the workers of being Afghan soldiers, officials said.
AFP - British mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley, which has been hit by a housing downturn and weakness in the wider economy, may be nationalised, according to newspaper reports.
AP - Pakistan's security forces pounded militant positions near strategic areas in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan, killing 25 suspected insurgents in a new round of a military offensive that also left three troops dead, officials said.
AP - Outside the Zekai Tahir Burak maternity hospital stands a bronze statue of a mother nursing a baby with an inscription from the Prophet Mohammed: "Paradise lies at the feet of the mother." -- read full article
AP - Iraq's foreign minister says "there is a new world now" because of the global financial crisis and he hopes it won't lead to an immediate withdrawal of the 146,000 American troops in his country.
AP - Astronauts aboard China's Shenzhou 7 spacecraft were making final preparations for the country's first-ever spacewalk planned for Saturday afternoon.
AP - A car packed with explosives detonated on a crowded residential street Saturday, killing 17 people and wounding more than a dozen others, state-run television reported. -- read full article
AP - India and Pakistan will attend an international nuclear disarmament conference for the first time in Sydney next month, Australia's government said Friday, even though the nuclear-armed foes have consistently shunned a nonproliferation treaty. -- read full article
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.
