AFP - Bombers on Friday killed 18 people in Afghanistan, a deadly start to President Hamid Karzai's second term in office that underscored spiralling insecurity nine years into the US-led war.

AFP - A lifeless wicket and resolute batting by India continued to frustrate Sri Lanka's bid to win the first cricket Test here on Friday.

AP - A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle killed 13 people, including a police officer, and wounded 30 others Friday in a busy city square in western Afghanistan.

AP - Washington's ambassador to Beijing hit out Friday at negative U.S. media coverage of President Barack Obama's visit to China, saying it failed to take into account important progress on many issues.

AP - A gunman went on a rampage on the Pacific resort island of Saipan on Friday, killing four people and wounding six others before fatally shooting himself, officials said.

Reuters - Eight Islamist militants were killed in a U.S. missile strike in northwest Pakistan on Friday, officials said, after three policemen were killed in a bomb blast.

AP - A suspected U.S. missile strike killed at least eight militants Friday in northwestern Pakistan, officials said, the second attack this week in an area believed to hold many insurgents who fled from an army offensive elsewhere in the Afghan border region.

AFP - A US missile attack killed eight people, including foreign militants on Friday in the second such attack in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt in two days, Pakistani security officials said.

AP - Arun Kumar was born to disabled parents, beaten by his grandparents, ran away from home, got a job in a garment factory and had all his savings stolen by the police.

AP - France's foreign minister walked into a remote Afghan village on Friday to talk with small farmers and local tribal leaders about how to bypass corrupt officials and bring aid directly to those who need it.

AP - A Hindu festival in which hundreds of thousands of animals are expected to be sacrificed will go ahead as scheduled in southern Nepal despite protests, organizers said Friday.

AP - Sometime into his long detention by China's feared state security agents, American geologist Xue Feng had something to show U.S. consular officials on their monthly visit. He rolled up his sleeve, revealing the burns where his interrogators pressed lit cigarettes into his arm.

AP - Diarrhea doesn't make headlines. Nor does pneumonia. AIDS and malaria tend to get most of the attention.

AP - Faced with an escalating insurgency, Pakistan increasingly views U.S. efforts to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan as critical to its own security — but is worried enough about the chances of American failure that it continues to hedge its bets.

AP - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton lauded the newly sworn-in Afghan president for outlining a plan to crack down on corruption in his inaugural speech Thursday, but warned that Washington and the international community would hold him to his promises.