Vice President Joe Biden celebrated American patriotism and mocked the ghost of Saddam Hussein during a Fourth of July visit to Iraq on Saturday.

North Korea fired several short-range missiles toward the Sea of Japan on Saturday, an act that the U.S. watched closely and South Korea called provocative.

Six people were killed, including three children, when a fire broke out in a high-rise apartment building in south London on Friday, officials said. The fire started on the fourth floor, eventually engulfing 12 floors and gutting apartments along the way.

North Korea fired a pair of mid-range missiles toward the Sea of Japan, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Saturday.

Two U.S. servicemembers were killed and four were wounded by an explosion in eastern Afghanistan, a U.S. military spokesman said Saturday.

The head of the Organization of American States said Friday he has found no willingness among leaders of Honduras' interim government to return President Jose Manuel Zelaya to power.

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon was denied permission to see Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, reporters traveling with the secretary-general said Saturday.

Iranians worried about their loved ones detained in the protests that followed the presidential election got the ear of a former president, who wants the detainees released, an Iranian reformist party newspaper reported on Thursday.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon will wake up a lame duck Monday. How lame will depend largely on nationwide midterm elections Sunday.

A military helicopter crashed Friday in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least 26 security personnel on board, the Pakistani military said.