AP - In a summer of suffering, America's military death toll in Afghanistan is rising, with back-to-back record months for U.S. losses in the grinding conflict. All signs point to more bloodshed in the months ahead, straining the already shaky international support for the war.

AP - The Obama administration on Friday implored the website WikiLeaks to stop posting secret Afghanistan war documents, as the Pentagon pressed its investigation of the massive security breach by bringing a soldier under scrutiny back to the U.S. for trial.

Reuters - Heavy monsoon rains have triggered the worst floods in decades in Pakistan's northwest, killing more than 400 people and forcing thousands from their homes as authorities struggle to reach stranded villagers.

AFP - James Anderson marked his 28th birthday with five wickets as Pakistan slumped to 147 for nine on the second day of the first Test against England at Trent Bridge here on Friday.

AFP - Four people were killed and 19 injured Friday in a blast at a tax office in central China that police said appeared to be a deliberate attack, state media reported.

AFP - A 26-year-old scholar was late Friday named winner of a hugely popular Malaysian TV talent show search for a top young Islamic leader which has gained worldwide attention.

AFP - Five Taliban members, including a former Afghan ambassador to the United Nations, have been taken off a UN sanctions terrorism list, Austria's UN mission said Friday.

AP - Young and poor, the Vietnamese woman jumped at the chance to marry a South Korean introduced to her through a matchmaking agency.

AP - Boats and helicopters struggled to reach hundreds of thousands of villagers cut off by floods in northwest Pakistan on Friday as the government said 430 people had been killed in the deadliest such disaster to hit the region since 1929.

AP - Paramilitary soldiers fired on thousands of demonstrators in Indian Kashmir on Friday, killing three men and wounding at least 80 others as protests against Indian rule spread across the disputed region.

AP - A grenade exploded near a Bangkok shopping mall early Friday, wounding one person in the second explosion in a week in the Thai capital still rattled by deadly political clashes and living under emergency rule.

AP - The U.S. said it is carefully watching the budding secretive relationship between Myanmar and North Korea for signs of nuclear cooperation, as official talks between the authoritarian regimes entered a second day Friday.

AP - Deep in a long-forgotten corner of the Forbidden City and up a twisting stairway are four sets of twin doors, shut for more than eight decades. They reveal rare sweeping views to the north, south, east and west above the golden-tiled rooftops of the imperial palace.

AP - Separatist rebels triggered a land mine Friday that killed at least five paramilitary soldiers and wounded 41 others in India's remote northeastern state of Assam, where a deadly separatist insurgency has long raged.

AP - In the crowded Taipei theater, Eddy Fang laughs politely at the Chinese ensemble's comic references to jealous husbands and overweight wives but can't help thinking it's all a bit lowbrow in relatively sophisticated Taiwan.

AP - China's military on Friday criticized remarks by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that Washington had a strong interest in seeing territorial disputes in the South China Sea resolved peacefully.