Lawmakers opened the way on July 29 for a last-ditch bid for a possible bipartisan compromise to avert a crippling national default just four days before the deadline to raise the country's debt ceiling.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has called a general election for November, four months earlier than expected.

At least 80 bodies have been recovered from a river in the north-west of the Democratic Republic of Congo after a ferry collided with a cargo boat.

Turkey appointed a new commander-in-chief of land forces after several top army leaders resigned on July 29, local media reported.

An explosion at a Ukrainian coal mine killed at least 16 miners on July 29 and nine were missing, the Emergencies Ministry said.

Former army officer Ollanta Humala has been sworn in as Peru's new president, vowing to eradicate poverty and social exclusion.

A vote on a Republican bill to raise the US debt ceiling, cut spending and avert default has been delayed in the face of conservative resistance.

Massive downpours in the Republic of Korea (RoK) - the heaviest rains in a century - are blamed for 51 deaths, the country's Central Disaster Relief Agency reported Friday.

Insurgents have carried out a gun and bomb attack in the south Afghan town of Tarin Kowt, Uruzgan province, leaving at least 22 dead, officials say.

The military commander of the Libyan rebels fighting to topple Col Muammar Gaddafi has been killed, the rebel National Transitional Council says.