AFP - The forty couples may have already tied the knot at home but, for these young Chinese, getting married in France was a dream come true.

AFP - The African Union announced Friday it is sending a peace mission to Chad to try to ease long-running tensions between Ndjamena and neighbouring Sudan.

AP - The Venezuelan government has ordered nearly all McDonald's restaurants in the country closed for 48 hours for what it calls irregularities in the fast-food chain's financial books.

AP - There's no doubt what Vladimir Putin's favorite birthday present is this year — a rare Ussuri tiger cub.

AP - U.S. missile attacks on suspected militants in Pakistan's northwest near Afghanistan are undermining the war on terror and "helping the terrorists," the Muslim nation's Foreign Ministry said Friday.

AP - Police dispersed hundreds of Jewish protesters with water canons Friday in this northern Israel city, trying to ease tensions after two days of rioting that shook a mixed Jewish-Arab community.

AP - Finland's ex-president Martti Ahtisaari won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his efforts to build a lasting peace from Africa and Asia to Europe and the Middle East.

AP - A spokesman for the group of pirates holding an arms-laden tanker off the coast of Somalia has threatened to blow up the ship in three days if no ransom is paid.

AP - NATO defense ministers Friday authorized their troops in Afghanistan to attack drug barons blamed for pumping up to US$100 million (euro74 million) a year into the coffers of resurgent Taliban fighters.

Reuters - China has stepped up scrutiny of milk production, tightened dairy controls and threatened to "out" offenders amid a widening health scandal, state media said Friday.

AFP - Financial stocks and shares were not the only items plummeting this week as the football fortunes of 2010 World Cup hosts South Africa took another nosedive.

AP - Hurricane Norbert weakened to Category 1 storm Thursday as it headed toward Mexico's southern Baja California peninsula but was still expected to be a hurricane when it hits land over the weekend.

AP - Two American journalists whose disappearance prompted a U.S. Embassy alert and a wide search turned up in Syrian custody Thursday after being detained while trying to sneak into the country with smugglers, Syrian officials said.