Officials say floods have killed 430 people in the deadliest such disaster to hit the region since 1929.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has deployed infantry troops and aircraft in case of a conflict with neighbouring Colombia.

An explosion has ripped through a workers' dormitory area and killed at least 15 people at a coal mine in a city in northern China notorious for mining disasters.

Soham murderer Ian Huntley is suing the prison service after being attacked by another inmate, the Ministry of Justice has said.

Pakistan's intelligence agency cancelled planned talks with security experts in the UK in protest at David Cameron's claim that elements within the country were promoting the export of terror, it has been reported.

Eds: APNewsNow. Will be updated. By TIM KORTE Associated Press Writer ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. An Illinois man faces human smuggling charges after allegedly placing an ad in a Polish language newspaper offering to help illegal immigrants get New Mexico driver's licenses.

British forces have made progress in a fresh assault on the Taliban in southern Afghanistan and are holding two compounds.

Afghan police fired shots on Friday to disperse hundreds of people protesting the deaths of civilians in an accident involving a U.S. Embassy vehicle, officials said.

Three U.S. troops died in blasts in Afghanistan, bringing the death toll for July to at least 63 and surpassing the previous month's record as the deadliest for American forces in the nearly 9-year-old war.

Uribe is in the final month of a presidency that has had many tensions with neighboring Venezuela, mostly over accusations that rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and National Liberation Army have camps in Venezuela.