AP – Two suicide bombers killed 43 people in near-simultaneous blasts Friday, the fourth major attack in Pakistan this week and a clear sign that militants have the power to strike targets despite months of army offensives and U.S. missile strikes.
AFP – China’s seemingly unquenchable thirst for wine has ousted America as Bordeaux’s number one client outside Europe, latest figures showed Friday.
AP – Fatima Meer, a friend and biographer of Nelson Mandela has died. She was 81.
AFP – Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie has decided to leave his job at the financially-crippled Premier League club.
AP – A Brazilian judge has ordered Air France to pay the equivalent of more than $1 million in damages to the family of one of the victims of last year’s crash that killed more than 200 people, officials said Friday.
AP – Pope Benedict XVI’s former German diocese said Friday it made a mistake when the pontiff was archbishop in allowing a priest suspected to have abused a child to return to pastoral work. However, it said Benedict wasn’t involved in the decision.
AP – The U.S. ambassador to Morocco has expressed dismay over the expulsion of Americans accused of trying to convert Moroccans to Christianity in the North African kingdom.
AP – A day of anti-government protests around Thailand passed peacefully Friday, though concerns remained about possible violence when demonstrators converge in the country’s capital for a ‘million man march’ on Sunday.
AFP – NATO needs to develop an anti-missile defence system as a deterrence, the alliance chief said Friday, while seeking to assure Moscow that the organisation posed no threat to Russia.
AFP – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki took a slender lead over his rivals on Friday, preliminary results from the country’s general election showed, as opposition blocs alleged blatant fraud.
