Reuters - An Indonesian volcano that lay dormant for 400 years erupted yet on Friday, shooting a mushroomed-shape plume of smoke 3 km (2 miles) into the air and prompting the second evacuation of terrified residents.

AP - A French skyscraper climber nicknamed "Spider-Man" pleaded not guilty Friday to charges related to his bare-handed climb up a 57-story building in downtown Sydney.

AFP - Australia's political paralysis will stretch into a third week with three "kingmaker" MPs still undecided Friday about which party to hand power in the first hung parliament in 70 years.

AP - Soldiers killed 25 suspected cartel members Thursday in a raid and gunbattle in a Mexican state near the U.S. border that has seen a surge in drug gang violence, the military said.

AP - President Felipe Calderon tried to rally frustrated Mexicans behind his increasingly bloody drug war Thursday, saying he knows violence has surged under his watch, but arguing that it is the price of confronting powerful and brutal cartels.

AP - One of two known survivors of a drug gang's massacre in northern Mexico of 72 undocumented Central and South American migrants said in an interview broadcast Thursday that they were killed because they refused to work for the traffickers.

AFP - The European Union said it would press China on Friday to back up its words with action and do more to stem the flow of Chinese-made counterfeit goods into Europe and around the world.

AP - An Indonesian volcano sent a new, powerful burst of hot ash high into the air early Friday, violently shaking homes and trees along the slopes and sending panicked villagers scurrying back to safety.

AP - Four months before Southern Sudan is scheduled to hold an independence referendum, tensions are already rising in this oil-rich region that sits on the expected future border, with allegations the central government is using violence and ethnic cleansing to sway the vote.

AP - To relaunch Middle East peace talks on Thursday, the Israeli and Palestinian leaders and their American mediators quietly agreed to push aside the question of Hamas — the Islamic militant group that controls one of the two Palestinian territories and rejects negotiations.