AFP - US President George W. Bush and his Democratic foes battled over an alleged London airline bomb plot, each side seeking a political edge ahead of critical November legislative elections.

AFP - S. Ganesh was a 16-year veteran aid worker who had followed Sri Lanka's Tamil insurgency since it began, so his wife thought little of his routine trip near a conflict zone last week.

Firefighters in Spain continue to battle over 100 wildfires across the country. Authorities have sent over 1,200 soldiers to the Galacia region to help fight fires which have burned over 24,700 acres of land, and killed three people....

The death toll from Typhoon Saomai rises to 28, as the storm destroys houses and capsizes boats in southeastern China. More than 1.5 million residents in flood-prone areas had been evacuated before the storm landed on Thursday evening....

AFP - British soldiers in Afghanistan are involved in some of the worst and most prolonged fighting since World War II, the British commander of NATO forces in the country said.

AFP - Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels urged international aid agencies to rush food and medicine to some 42,000 people displaced by the latest fighting in guerrilla-held territory.

AP - A fight between a passenger and flight attendants on a Qatar Airways plane sparked a hijacking scare Thursday, prompting the plane to return to Amman on a day of increased tensions on flights after a foiled terror plot in Britain.

AFP - India and Bhutan's army chiefs will meet to discuss reports that rebels from India's northeast are again trying to set up bases in the tiny Himalayan kingdom, a report said.

Reuters - Left-handed men, often seen as having an advantage over right-handed counterparts in sports like tennis, also enjoy much better paydays, a new study says.

AP - News of a thwarted plot to down trans-Atlantic airliners sent a shiver of anxiety through Britain's Muslim community Thursday.

A close Cuban ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says Fidel Castro will recover and return to power in Havana. Chavez says "From here, let's pray to God for Fidel and his recovery, and he's fighting a great battle."

AFP - British soldiers in Afghanistan are involved in some of the worst and most prolonged fighting since World War II, the British commander of NATO forces in the country said.

AP - Residents of an east London neighborhood on Thursday expressed shock and skepticism after several homes there were raided in connection with the alleged terror plot against trans-Atlantic planes.

AFP - The United States said it will give Afghanistan 3.2 billion dollars in aid this year, with more than three-quarters earmarked for boosting the insurgency-racked country's army and police.

Reuters - The strongest typhoon to strike China for half a century killed at least 30 people and many others were missing, the official Xinhua news agency said early on Friday as the storm weakened and moved inland.

Reuters - Suspected British suicide bombers were just days away from simultaneous attacks on transatlantic airliners when officials said they foiled what one senior police commander called "mass murder on an unimaginable scale."

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Thursday captured the southern Lebanon town of Marjayoun with little or no resistance from Hezbollah fighters in the area. A Christian community, Marjayoun lies just five miles north of the Israeli town of Metulla....

AP - Israel grabbed strategic high ground in south Lebanon on Thursday but delayed a major push northward, as diplomats cited progress toward agreement on a U.N. cease-fire resolution that could soon go to a vote.

Reuters - A plot to blow up several airliners flying between Britain and the United States highlights militants' long-held obsession with planes and their hunger for a mega-attack to eclipse September 11.

AP - British police said Thursday they thwarted a terrorist plot, possibly just days away, to blow up U.S.-bound jetliners over the Atlantic and kill thousands. Chilling accounts leaked by investigators described a plan on the scale of 9/11 that would use liquid explosives concealed as sports drink bottles and common electronic devices to bring down as many as 10 planes in a nearly simultaneous strike.