Aftershocks rock South Pacific near Tonga

NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga -- A pair of aftershocks rattled the South Pacific island nation of Tonga on Friday but caused no damage or injuries, a day after a large quake exposed alarming cracks in a tsunami warning system. A magnitude 6.0 and a magnitude 5.4 aftershock hit the same region of Tonga, the U.S. Geological Survey reported, but there was no sign of any damage in the capital and no tsunami warnings were issued.

Two soldiers killed by bomb south of Kabul

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Two Italian soldiers were killed and four were wounded by a roadside bomb Friday while they were on patrol south of Kabul, a military spokesman said. Two military vehicles were patrolling together when one of them was hit, said Maj. Luke Knittig, a Kabul-based spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force. The attack apparently occurred in Kabul province, south of the capital on a main road, he said.

Russian media: Cheney signals new Cold War

MOSCOW -- A Russian newspaper said Friday that Vice President Dick Cheney's harsh criticism of Moscow's human record signaled the start of a new Cold War. The Kommersant business daily compared Cheney's speech Thursday in neighboring Lithuania to Winston Churchill's famous "Iron Curtain" speech in Fulton, Mo., saying in that it "marked the beginning of a second Cold War." Asked to comment on the comparison, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov refrained from criticizing Cheney.

3 U.S. soldiers killed south of Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A roadside bomb killed three American soldiers south of Baghdad on Friday as U.S. and Iraqi forces swept through a city to the north where three insurgents had been killed the day before after firing on U.S troops. The three Americans died in the attack shortly before noon in Babil province, the U.S. military said, giving few other details.

Israeli airstrike kills five militants training at Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- An Israeli aircraft struck a training camp used by Palestinian militants on Friday, killing five members of a group that has close ties to the ruling Hamas movement. The airstrike raised already heightened tensions between the Israelis and the Palestinians and sparked a new crisis for Islamic militant group Hamas, which is under heavy international pressure to renounce violence since taking the helm of the government. The Israelis hit a base used by the Popular Resistance Committees.

-- From wire reports