Iraqi Shiites burn Bush effigy to protest US pact
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Thousands of followers of a radical Shiite cleric protested a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security deal Friday, burning an effigy of President George W. Bush in the same square where Iraqis beat a toppled Saddam Hussein statue five years ago....

Mexico: Former drug czar took cartel money
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico's former drug czar was accused Friday of taking $450,000 from a powerful cartel, further evidence the country's drug gangs are being protected by the highest levels of government....

Myanmar court hands comedian 45-year prison term
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Myanmar's courts continued a crackdown on activists Friday, handing out a 45-year prison sentence to a comedian who went to the delta to help cyclone victims and criticized the junta's slow relief response....

Islamists say they'll fight Somali pirates
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- A radical Islamic group in Somalia said Friday it will fight the pirates holding a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil....

UN: Congo refugees suffer shooting, rape, looting
GOMA, Congo (AP) -- Shootings, looting and rape plague the already desperate lives of refugees in eastern Congo, where people caught between soldiers and rebels live in constant fear, U.N. officials said Friday....

China: 19,000 victims identified from May quake
BEIJING (AP) -- A little over a quarter of the 70,000 people who died in a massive earthquake that struck Sichuan province in May have been identified, a Chinese official said Friday, as authorities rushed to prepare stricken areas for the coming winter....

Blast kills 8 mourners at Pakistani funeral
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) -- Police said a bomb killed eight mourners at the funeral of a Shiite cleric in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, stoking sectarian tension in a region already beset by militant violence....

European library site crashes hours after launch
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- European culture went digital - but it only lasted a day....

Bulgarian archaeologists discover ancient chariot
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) -- Archaeologists have unearthed a well-preserved 1,800-year-old bronze chariot at an ancient Thracian tomb in southeastern Bulgaria, the head of the excavation said Friday....