DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan has launched what it expects will be a two-month-long ground assault to weed the Pakistani Taliban out of its stronghold along the Afghan border. An intelligence official says the army has deployed more than 30,000 troops in the offensive and says at least 11 militants have been killed in jet bombings.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Violence in Iraq has left nine dead, most of them Iraqi security force members. Police in Fallujah say an attack on an Iraqi army convoy just outside the city killed four soldiers. Outside Ramadi, a suicide truck bomber destroyed a key bridge used by the U.S. military to transport equipment out of the country. There were no casualties in the blast.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Forecasters are warning that Hurricane Rick could strike Mexico's Baja California Peninsula in five days' time. The storm revved up into an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm in only about 36 hours and forecasters warn it could grow stronger. It's expected to weaken to a Category 1 before hitting land.

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — The father in Thursday's balloon saga is promising a "big announcement" later today. Richard Heene told Denver's KUSA-TV he would make the announcement later this morning. The national spotlight shone on Heene's 6-year-old son after his brother reported he had floated off in a helium balloon. It turned out, the boy was hiding at home.

GIRIFUSHI, Maldives (AP) — Members of the Maldives' Cabinet are plunging into the depths of a lagoon to splash some light on climate change. The islands are just 7 feet above sea level and melting polar ice caps threaten to swamp the Indian Ocean archipelago within a century.