AP - In a last dash of diplomacy, President George W. Bush on Friday sought China's help in pinning down North Korea to keep its shaky promises of nuclear disarmament.

AP - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday he would like to add significant U.S. forces to the war in Afghanistan before national elections scheduled for next year, and that grim depictions of backsliding in the seven-year-old war are "far too pessimistic."

AP - Congo's rebel leader is expected to hold his first public rally Saturday in the territory his fighters seized during a lightning advance last month in the eastern part of the country.

AP - A bomb killed eight mourners at the funeral of a slain Shiite cleric Friday in northwestern Pakistan, triggering rioting and heightening sectarian tension in the volatile region.

AFP - The International Monetary Fund is "ready to rapidly assist" Latvia deal with its economic crisis, in close cooperation with the European Union, IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Friday in a statement.

AP - As of Friday, Nov. 21, 2008, at least 4,202 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

AP - Investigators said Friday that they have found evidence of irregularities in the training records of at least one of the pilots handling a jet that crashed earlier this month, killing Mexico's interior secretary.

AFP - An Australian mayor who invited ugly women to move to his outback mining town, saying even they would find a man there, has won the top "award" for the most sexist public comment of the year.