AP - Chanting and waving flags, thousands of followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr filled a central Baghdad square Friday to protest a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security pact that would allow American troops to stay for three more years.

AP - A blast killed at least eight mourners Friday at the funeral of a Shiite cleric in northwestern Pakistan who was gunned down hours earlier, police said. At least 28 others were wounded.

AP - A little over a quarter of the 70,000 people who died in a massive earthquake that struck Sichuan province in May have been identified, a Chinese official said Friday, as authorities rushed to prepare stricken areas for the coming winter.