AFP - England handed under-fire manager Fabio Capello some badly needed breathing space here Friday as a Jermain Defoe hat-trick saw them romp to a 4-0 victory over Bulgaria in their opening Euro 2012 qualifier.

Reuters - A suicide bomber struck a rally in the Pakistani city of Quetta on Friday, killing at least 54 people in the second major attack this week and piling pressure on a U.S.-backed government overwhelmed by a flood crisis.

AP - A Honduran who survived the massacre of 72 migrants in Mexico helped untie the only other survivor — a wounded Ecuadorean — and the two fled together, an official said Friday.

AP - A powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck much of New Zealand's South Island early Saturday and caused widespread damage, but there were just two reports of serious injuries. Looters broke into some damaged shops in Christchurch, police said.

AP - A UPS cargo plane with two crew members on board crashed shortly after takeoff Friday outside Dubai, officials said.

AP - Posters supporting Egypt's intelligence chief as a candidate in next year's presidential election were removed from Cairo's streets hours after they appeared, while an independent newspaper was ordered to pull reports of the campaign from its pages, officials said Friday.

AP - Pro-government crowds swarmed outside the battered home of a key Iranian opposition leader Friday after militiamen attacked with firebombs and beat a bodyguard unconscious in a brazen message of intimidation and pinpoint pressure on dissent.

AFP - China beat South Africa 4-1 to get off the mark at the third attempt, England drew with South Korea, and Argentina dished out a 4-0 rout to Spain at the women's field hockey World Cup on Friday.

AP - Mozambique's economy has lost more than $3 million because of deadly riots over the rising prices of food and other goods, the government said Friday, as state media reported new protests in two other towns.

AP - A suicide bombing claimed by the Pakistani Taliban killed at least 43 Shiite Muslims at a procession in southwest Pakistan on Friday. The assault sharply drove up the toll of sectarian assaults in a country battered by massive flooding.

AP - North Korea is preparing its largest political meeting in 30 years, and leader Kim Jong Il is expected to appoint a son to a key Workers Party position in what would be the strongest sign yet of a succession movement in the secretive communist country.