AP - A protest group seeking to unseat Thailand's government was buoyed Thursday by court rulings that ordered insurrection charges dropped against its leaders and called for the authorities to use "soft means" to quell demonstrations.

AP - North Korea moved closer Thursday to relaunching its nuclear arms program, announcing that it wants to reactivate the facility that produced its atomic bomb and banning U.N. inspectors from the site.

AP - Pakistani intelligence agents Friday were investigating the identities of up to eight foreigners believed killed in a suspected U.S. missile strike close to the Afghan border.

AP - Thousands of supporters of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr marched through eastern Baghdad on Friday to mourn the killing of a Sadrist lawmaker and hear a statement from the anti-U.S. cleric blaming occupation and terrorism for the loss.

AP - Surgeons successfully removed a gallstone from the Dalai Lama on Friday, just days after doctors had cleared the Tibetan spiritual leader during a medical checkup, a spokesman said.

AP - Qantas Airways said Thursday it will financially compensate all passengers who were on board a plane that made a terrifying plunge this week, tossing people around the cabin and injuring dozens.

AFP - A suicide attack struck a police complex in Islamabad and a roadside bomb killed 10 people in Pakistan's northwest on Thursday, underscoring the growing threat posed by Islamist militants.

AFP - Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Thursday blasted African leaders' fear of criticising each other saying it was stifling the continent's progress towards democracy.

AP - Pope Benedict XVI gave World War II pontiff Pius XII a push toward possible sainthood Thursday and defended his memory from accusations that he did little to spare Jews from the Holocaust.

AP - Peering into five pails of foaming milk, Wang Guifeng quickly jotted down the farmer's name before signaling the batch was OK. Every day he rejects milk from two or three farms whose cows don't meet hygiene standards or show signs of disease.

AP - Some rural Zimbabweans facing one of the hungriest years they could remember have been forced to live on a meal a day and in some cases only on wild fruits, the U.N. food aid agency said Thursday.

AP - North Korea announced Thursday that it is preparing to restart the facility that produced its atomic bomb, clearly indicating that it plans to completely pull out of an international deal to end its nuclear program.

AP - A suspected U.S. missile strike targeted two areas in a Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border Thursday, killing at least nine people, intelligence officials said.