Hundreds of people are feared dead and several villages are destroyed when a tsunami hits the islands of Samoa and American Samoa.

The U.S. will withdraw 4,000 troops from Iraq by the end of October and is on track to withdraw all combat troops by September 2010, according to an advanced copy of an address that General Ray Odierno, the U.S. military commander in Iraq, is expected to give to the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee today.

Israel plans to release 20 female Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a videotape that proves that an Israel soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Palestinian militants in 2006, is still alive.

Pakistani and Indian reports obtained by The New York Times show that ten months after terrorists killed 163 people in Mumbai, Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani militant organization behind the attacks, is still intact and determined to strike India again.

Talks between Iran, the U.S. and five other world powers begin tomorrow in Geneva.