Iranian embassy employees shot in Baghdad
BAGHDAD — Three employees of the Iranian embassy and their Iraqi driver were shot and wounded as they traveled Thursday to the Shiite Kadhemiyah Shrine in northern Baghdad.

Iraq army rounds up suspects in assault on Al-Qaeda
Iraqi security forces carried out mass arrests in the main northern city of Mosul on Thursday as a major crackdown against Al-Qaeda entered its second day, officials said. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who travelled to Mosul on Wednesday to spearhead Operation Mother of Two Springs, spent the night there and vowed to rid the province of Al-Qaeda operatives, the interior ministry said.

Al-Maliki offers amnesty in Mosul
BAGHDAD – Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has offered members of armed groups in Mosul an amnesty in exchange for surrendering their weapons.

Bin Laden: Palestinian cause fuels war
CAIRO, Egypt – Osama bin Laden said in a new audio recording released Friday that al-Qaida will continue its holy war against Israel and its allies until it liberates Palestine.

Bush asks Saudis to increase oil production
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – President Bush is appealing to oil-rich Saudi Arabia to increase production just as oil prices have hit another record high.
Our beggar-in-chief.

Suicide bomber kills 16 in Afghanistan: local governor
A suicide bomber apparently wearing a burqa blew up in a busy bazaar in southwestern Afghanistan Thursday, killing 16 people, officials said, as eight rebels died elsewhere in the country.

Nine dead, scores wounded in Sri Lanka suicide blast
COLOMBO (AFP) – At least nine people were killed and 95 others wounded in a Tamil Tiger suicide bombing near the official residence of Sri Lanka’s president in the capital Colombo, officials said Friday.

China reopens Tibet temple after unrest: state media
BEIJING (AFP) – The most famous temple in Tibet’s capital Lhasa reopened to the public Friday, two months after it was closed due to major protests against Beijing’s rule, Chinese state media said.

Myanmar says more than 133,000 dead, missing
YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar on Friday said more than 133,000 people were dead or missing in the cyclone disaster, with the huge increase due to difficulties in confirming the figures, state television reported.

Survivors pulled from rubble of China quake
BEICHUAN, China – Rescuers pulled survivors from the rubble Friday who had been buried for four days as a strong aftershock sparked landslides near the epicenter of this week’s powerful earthquake.

Morning-after pill sold over the counter in Canada
TORONTO (Reuters) – The so-called “morning after” pill Plan B has received full over-the-counter status in Canada, drug maker Paladin Labs Inc said on Thursday.

U.S.-trained forces reportedly helping Mexican cartels
As many as 200 U.S.-trained Mexican security personnel have defected to drug cartels to carry out killings on both sides of the border and as far north as Dallas, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, told Congress on Wednesday. The renegade members of Mexico’s elite ‘counter’-narcotics teams trained at Fort Benning, Ga., have switched sides, contributing to a wave of violence that has claimed some 6,000 victims over the past 30 months, including prominent law enforcement leaders, the Houston-area Republican told the House Foreign Affairs Committee…

Interpol: E-mails linking Venezuela, FARC are legitimate
BOGOTA — Interpol said Thursday that it is “absolutely certain” that documents linking the Venezuelan and Ecuadorean governments to Colombia’s FARC guerillas came from computers belonging to slain rebel leader Raul Reyes and that the documents were not modified or altered in any way.

President is favored in today’s Dominican election
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – President Leonel Fernandez was favored to win a third term on Friday, despite concerns over long-serving politicians in this Caribbean nation with a painful history of rule by strongmen.

Belarus says U.S. sanctions further damage ties
MINSK (Reuters) – Belarus accused the United States on Friday of harming the interests of ordinary citizens by imposing new sanctions on the ex-Soviet state’s industry in a row over human rights.

Mugabe acknowledges election disaster as run-off date set
HARARE(AFP) – Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe acknowledged Friday he had suffered an electoral disaster in losing a first round against arch rival Morgan Tsvangirai, as the date for a run-off was fixed for June 27.

Chad army helicopter fires rockets into Sudan border area: military
PARIS (AFP) – A Chad army helicopter fired rockets Friday in an area close to Sudan’s Darfur border racked by tension over rebel activity and refugee flows, a French military source told AFP.