AP - The State Department must develop a "comprehensive, long-term strategy" to meet the public's rising demand for passports and avoid a repeat of the frustrating backlog fiasco of last summer, congressional investigators have concluded.

AFP - White House hopeful Barack Obama fired back at Republican foe John McCain in a new row over Iraq, as his Europe and Middle East tour Friday took him to France, after a massive campaign event in Berlin.

Reuters - Home foreclosure filings rose 14
percent in the second quarter, the eighth consecutive quarterly
climb, and more than doubled from the same period a
year-earlier, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Friday.

Reuters - New Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf
Raza Gilani can expect U.S. demands for action against
militants in tribal lands on the Afghan border, along with
usual statements of support, when he visits Washington next
week.

AFP - A Qantas Boeing 747 flying to Melbourne made an emergency landing in Manila on Friday after a dramatic mid-air rupture that left a "gaping hole" in its fuselage, officials and passengers said.

Reuters - A Qantas Airways plane made an emergency
landing in Manila on Friday after part of its undercarriage
blew off, triggering a loss in cabin pressure during a flight
from Hong Kong to Melbourne.

AP - Peyton Manning's voice resonated through the Colts training camp Thursday ? from 90 miles away. The NFL's two-time MVP spent reporting day at home in Indianapolis, his valuable left knee immobilized after having surgery to remove an infected bursa sac.

AP - If you haven't heard of "Twilight, " ask a teenager. The best-selling young-adult book isn't bound for the big screen until December, but fan frenzy for the film practically took over Comic-Con on Thursday.

AP - In an air-conditioned room in the Chinese Embassy, a vice minister from Beijing chastises Americans for their "very limited" understanding of violent anti-government protests in Tibet.