American and Afghan officials have begun helping a number of anti-Taliban militias that have independently taken up arms against insurgents in several parts of Afghanistan.

Relatives of victims of a blast at a Chinese coal mine scuffled demanded answers from the owners as state media put the toll from the latest in a series of mine disasters at 104.

Russian spaceship designer Konstantin Feoktistov, the only non-Communist space traveler in the history of the Soviet space program, has died at the age of 83.