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There are growing indications that Pakistan's most wanted man, Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, has been killed by a US missile.
A Mehsud aide reportedly confirmed that he had died when a drone attacked the house where he was staying.
Pakistan's foreign minister said he was "pretty certain" he was dead, adding that he would be hard to replace.
Taliban leaders have gathered in South Waziristan to choose a successor, local sources have told the BBC. source: bbc.com

Christina Cimino was logging onto Twitter on Thursday morning when something happened that she found deeply unsettling.
iReporter David Seaman says Twitter needs a competitor so users don't panic when it goes down.
1 of 2 "I got some weird error message, and I'm like, 'What's going on!?" the 24-year-old said.
That error message was the scourge of online social networkers worldwide on Thursday as cyber-attacks shut down Twitter and caused sustained glitches in other social-media sites like Facebook and the blogging site LiveJournal.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote the sites were the victims of what "appears to be a single, massively coordinated attack." And a pro-Georgian blogger, whose accounts on Facebook and Twitter reportedly were the targets of the denial-of-service attack, told CNN the online strike was timed to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the Russia-Georgia conflict.
What may prove more lasting about the day social networking suffered its first major blackout is the degree to which people cared. Near-panic erupted in some corners of the Internet as people lost cherished links to their online friends, family members and news feeds. Watch CNN iReporters talk about the attack . source: cnn.com

Indonesian terror suspect Noordin dead
Updated at: 1027 PST, Saturday, August 08, 2009
JAKARTA: Indonesian terror suspect Noordin Mohammed Top was killed during a raid on his hideout by heavily armed counter-terrorism police in Indonesia Saturday, local television reported.
The television station did not disclose its sources and police have not confirmed the report, which came as ambulances arrived at the suspected hideout following a 17-hour siege involving heavy gunfire and explosions.
In an operation linked to the ongoing counter-terror operation in Central Java, two would-be suicide bombers who were weeks away from launching a car bomb attack were killed during a police raid near Jakarta early Saturday, the Indonesian police chief said.
National police chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri said the two men were shot dead as they were about to detonate hand-made bombs during the raid, which uncovered a cache of explosive material and a car rigged as a bomb.
He said the house in Bekasi, outside Jakarta, was being used as a base by a "cell of NMT," referring to Noordin, wanted over multiple suicide bombings in Indonesia.
"We had to shoot them because at the time of the raid they had hand-held bombs that were about to be thrown at the police," he said.source: geo news

The fringes of Typhoon Morakot killed 10 people and injured 18 others in the Philippines, a spokeswoman for the National Disaster Coordinating Council told CNN.
Residents walk along a flooded highway to safety in Zambales province, Philippines, on Friday.
1 of 2 Three French tourists died when their vehicle was swept into the water; two local tourist guides also died when they tried to rescue them, she said.
Heavy rain triggered at least 10 landslides, one of which destroyed a school, the spokeswoman said, adding that 23 structures were destroyed and six were damaged.
The Philippines was expected to clear up late Saturday morning, said CNN Meteorologist Kevin Corriveau.
In Taiwan, two people died and people were missing, according to local media.
The storm was dropping massive amounts of rain in Taiwan as well, despite being downgraded to tropical storm strength by Saturday morning, Corriveau said.
Some places in central and southern parts of the island saw nearly 1.3 meters (51 inches) of rain, and another meter (39 inches) were expected, he added.
Journalist Andrew Lee in Taipei, citing local media, said the storm had blown off roofs and washed out some bridges. source: cnn.com

Wolfsburg got the defense of their Bundesliga title off to a winning start with a convincing 2-0 home victory over Stuttgart on Friday.
Zvjezdan Misimovic (left) celebrates his goal with Sascha Riether as Wolfsburg defeated Stuttgart 2-0.
Goals from Zvjezdan Misimovic and Grafite in the last quarter of the game earned Armin Veh's side all three points at the VW-Arena.
The Wolves carried on from where they left off last season with some enterprising football to suggest they could again be the team to beat in Germany this season.
New Wolfsburg coach Veh made just one change from the side preferred by his predecessor Felix Magath last season with Karim Ziani starting in the midfield behind Edin Dzeko and Grafite.
Nigerian striker Obafemi Martins, signed from Newcastle, started on the bench.
Stuttgart coach Markus Babbel awarded Alexander Hleb and Pavel Pogrebnyak immediate debuts in his starting side less than a week after the pair joined the club.
Pogrebnyak was not lacking in fitness having joined from Russian outfit Zenit St Petersburg, who are midway through their season, and he looked lively early on.
His cross provided the first chance of the game for Sami Khedira, whose header was saved by Diego Benaglio with the aid of the inside of his post.source: cnn.com

An autopsy report issued Friday by Hillsborough County, Florida, cites cocaine as a contributing factor in the death of TV pitchman Billy Mays, who died in June at age 50.
The Hillsborough County medical examiner's office said cocaine use contributed to Billy Mays' heart disease.
"Mays died from a lethal arrhythmia of the heart caused by hypertensive and arteriosclerotic heart disease," the county said in a statement attributed to Dr. Leszek Chrostowski, the associate medical examiner who conducted the autopsy.
"He further concluded that cocaine use caused or contributed to the development of his heart disease, and therefore contributed to his death," it added.
The fact that toxicology tests detected only breakdown products of cocaine, not the drug itself, led Chrostowski to conclude that Mays had used cocaine "in the few days prior to death but not immediately prior to death."
Cocaine is a stimulant that can raise blood pressure and thicken the wall of the left ventricle of the heart, one of the organ's four main pumping chambers. source: cnn.com

Though their honeymoon in Bali was cut short by a bout of food poisoning, newlyweds Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan made sure to mark the occasion in a permanent way -- with matching tattoos that spell out "side by side" in Balinese.
Channing Tatum and wife Jenna Dewan, here smiling at the "G.I. Joe" premiere, recently got matching tattoos.
"It was a joint decision," Tatum, 29, told PEOPLE at a Los Angeles screening of "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra." "We always wanted to get a tattoo of something together."
But the two, who met while filming 2006's "Step Up," wanted their ink to be meaningful.
"We weren't going to do each other's names," Tatum said, laughing. "We wanted to do something symbolic."
So, the happy couple chose a phrase that they hold near to their hearts, and now, even closer to their skin.
"It was in one of our vows to each other," the actor said, as his wife showed off her recently inked left foot. "We took it from that." source: cnn.com

FALLUJA, Iraq (CNN) -- Like many young boys, Khidir loves playing with toy cars and wants to be a policeman like his father when he grows up. But it was his father's very job that caused the tiny child to suffer the unimaginable.
Khidir, now 8, was kidnapped and held hostage for two years by operatives with al Qaeda in Iraq.
1 of 2 Khidir was just 6 years old when he was savagely ripped away from his family, kidnapped by al Qaeda operatives in Iraq.

"They beat me with a shovel, they pulled my teeth out with pliers, they would go like this and pull it," said Khidir, now 8, demonstrating with his hands. "And they would make me work on the farm gathering carrots."
What followed was even more horrific, an ordeal that would last for two years in captivity. Khidir and his father spoke to CNN recently, more than half a year after his rescue by Iraqi police. Watch boy describe torture »
"This is where they hammered a nail into my leg and then they pulled it out," he says, lifting up his pant leg to show a tiny wound.
He says his captors also pulled out each of his tiny fingernails, broke both his arms, and beat him repeatedly on the side of the head with a shovel. He still suffers chronic headaches. He remembers them laughing as they inflicted the pain.
"I would think about my mommy and daddy," he replies, when asked how he managed to get through the agony. source: cnn.com

Beijing is enjoying the best air quality this decade because of measures taken during last year's Olympic Games, officials have said.
They say there were 171 days of low pollution in the first seven months of this year, 22 more than in 2008.
One year after the games, independent experts agree that air quality in the Chinese capital has improved.
But they say the city still has some way to go before it can be compared with the world's cleanest cities.
And the clean-up came at a cost. China will find it hard to spend similar amounts of money improving its other polluted cities.
"All the major measures taken by the city were expensive and not easily replicated elsewhere," said Yang Ailun, of Greenpeace in China.source: bbc.com

U.S. scientists monitoring shrinking glaciers in Washington State and Alaska reported this week that a major meltdown is under way.
The Gulcana glacier in Alaska is one of three glaciers considered a benchmark by the U.S. Geological Survey.
A 50-year government study found that the world's glaciers are melting at a rapid and alarming rate. The ongoing study is the latest in a series of reports that found glaciers worldwide are melting faster than anyone had predicted they would just a few years ago. It offers a clear indication of an accelerating climate change and warming earth, according to the authors.

Since 1959, the U.S. Geological Survey, which published the study on its Web site, has been tracking the movements of the South Cascade glacier in Washington State and the Wolverine and Gulcana glaciers in Alaska. The three glaciers are considered "benchmarks" for the conditions of thousands of other glaciers because they're in different climate zones and at various elevations.
"These changes are taking place in Washington State and Alaska in three different climate regimes," said Edward Josberger, the lead researcher on the study with the USGS Washington Water Science Center in Tacoma, Washington. "So we feel it's definitely something going on, probably on a global scale, and of course, if you look at other such measurements around the world and put it all together, yes, glaciers are retreating and retreating rapidly." source:cnn.com

The UK's commitment to Afghanistan could last for up to 40 years, the incoming head of the Army has said.
Gen Sir David Richards, who takes over on 28 August, told the Times the Army's role would evolve, but the process of "nation-building" would last decades.
Troops will be required for the medium term only, but the UK will continue to play a role in "development, governance [and] security sector reform," he said.
"There is absolutely no chance of Nato pulling out," Gen Richards added.
Gen Richards commanded 35,000 troops from 37 nations when he was head of Nato's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan between May 2006 and February 2007.
He will take over from Gen Sir Richard Dannatt as the UK's chief of the general staff.
'Campaign winnable'
Gen Richards' comments come a day after it emerged that three servicemen, from the Parachute Regiment, had been killed north of Lashkar Gah, in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, on Thursday afternoon. source: bbc.com

Indonesian police have stormed a house in central Java believed to contain one of South-East Asia's most wanted men.
The move came after a stand-off lasting 17 hours which included exchanges of gunfire and several explosions.
Police said the anti-terror operation in the Temanggung district followed the arrest on Friday of several suspected militants loyal to Noordin Mohamed Top.
Noordin, a Malaysian citizen, is suspected of involvement in last month's bombings of two Jakarta hotels.
About 500kg of explosives were seized at a house in Bekasi, near Jakarta
In a separate incident, police said they had killed two suspected militants in a raid on a house in the Bekasi area, near the capital.
Five others were arrested and up to 500kg of explosives were seized.
Gen Bambang Hendarso Danuri said the two men had been shot because they were about to detonate hand-held bombs.
They were would-be suicide bombers from a cell loyal to Noordin who were preparing to attack "special targets" in two week, he added.
Workshop raid
Almost a day after surrounding it, members of Indonesia's elite anti-terrorism unit entered the remote house in a rice paddy field outside Temanggung at 0945 (0245 GMT) by blowing in one of the doors.
Several minutes later, during which time there were further explosions and exchanges of gunfire, officers were seen leaving with their helmets off and shaking hands with each other. source: bbc.com