AP - The Iraqi battalion leader huddled over the map with his American advisers, showing them how he planned to surround a Sunni enclave where al-Qaida militants were believed hiding.

AFP - The US military will transfer security control of Anbar province, scene of some of its bloodiest battles since the 2003 invasion, to Iraqi forces on September 1, the provincial police chief told AFP on Thursday.

AP - Russian forces turned over 12 Georgian soldiers on the border of one of the separatist provinces under its control Thursday after the short war that outraged the West and brought Moscow's military deep into Georgia.