GEORGE W. BUSH

The head of the agency charged with ensuring smooth transition of the television industry into digital broadcasting quit the Bush administration late Friday.

Pakistani national elections will take place before February 15, President Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday, after Western allies and opponents had demanded polls be held on time and emergency rule scrapped.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has said that an army operation is still planned against Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq, but diplomats suggested on Tuesday that any action would now be limited in scope.

Americans are concerned about Iran's nuclear program but split on whether the United States should take military action to shut it down if diplomatic efforts fail, according to a USA Today/Gallup Poll released on Monday.

Pakistani police beat and arrested lawyers protesting for a second day on Tuesday against President Pervez Musharraf's emergency rule, while officials under U.S. pressure said an election would be held in early 2008. Opposition politicians, including Benazir Bhutto, have spoken out but there has been no real action on their part so far, and the struggle has been left to the lawyers.

The Pakistani government said on Monday it would hold a national election by mid-January, as it came under pressure from the United States for imposing emergency rule and detaining lawyers and opposition politicians.

President George W. Bush, facing Turkish threats of a military incursion into Iraq to root out Kurdish rebels, will assure Turkey's prime minister on Monday he is committed to helping to combat the militants.

Condoleezza Rice urged Israel on Sunday to be bold in pursuing peace with the Palestinians after Israeli leaders warned her there could be no deal on a Palestinian state until their own security was guaranteed.

With Americans weary of the Iraq war and U.S. elections on the horizon, Congress is struggling over how to get tough on Iran without giving President George W. Bush a blank check for a military strike.

The United States on Friday promised effective action against Kurdish rebels launching attacks on Turkey from northern Iraq, but cautioned Ankara against military moves that might destabilize the area.

Japan ordered its naval ships on Thursday to withdraw from a refueling mission in support of U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan as a political deadlock kept the government from meeting a deadline to extend the activities.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that economic sanctions agreed against groups backing Kurdish rebels were not yet in force, denying a report that Turkey had closed its airspace to flights to northern Iraq.

When the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra (INSO) holds a concert in Baghdad, organizers don't like to advertise: in fact they would prefer as few people as possible know about it.

Four burned bodies found in the path of California's fierce wildfires raised the death toll to at least 12 people, even as firefighters won the upper hand and officials turned on Friday toward assessing the damage.

President George W. Bush, visited San Diego and had an aerial view and tour of the damages caused by wild fires that have wrecked havoc across southern California, forcing more than 500,000 to flee their homes.

California wildfires that have destroyed 1,300 homes and forced the evacuation of 500,000 people raged into a fifth day on Thursday but firefighters seized on a break in the weather to largely halt the march of destruction.

U.S. forces hope to hand over half of Baghdad to Iraqi security control by the end of 2008, after violence in Iraq dropped to its lowest level since January 2006, the No. 2 U.S. general in Iraq said on Wednesday.

Dying winds gave California firefighters their first big break on Wednesday after four days battling wildfires, but San Diego faced more calamity as blazes there burned out of control and kept more than half a million evacuees from returning home.

Relentless wildfires forcing the largest evacuations in California's modern history raged into a fourth day on Wednesday as 10,000 exhausted firefighters hoped for a break in the hot winds whipping the flames.

Towering wildfires burned out of control across Southern California for a third day on Tuesday as 500,000 people fled the San Diego area, and firefighters made a desperate stand to save a mountain town ringed by flames.

Wildfires burned unchecked on Tuesday in Southern California, with hundreds of thousands of people forced to evacuate, at least 700 homes destroyed, and little hope for relief from the hot desert winds fanning the flames.