Place your bets! Tie the knot! Make a wish! Friday is the 11th day of the 11th month of 2011, and around the country, many people are planning to mark the triple convergence of 11s with a splash, hoping it will bring them good fortune or at least amuse them for a day.

Authorities say two single-engine planes have collided in midair over western Alaska. Each plane was reportedly carrying one pilot.

World leaders were to meet in Paris today to plot Libya's post-Gaddafi future, as one of the fugitive dictator's sons pledged that loyalists would fight their rebel enemies to the death.

Noting that three in four terror suspects are acquitted in Pakistan, the United States expressed doubts that its key ally would make any headway in prosecuting the key plotters of 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin reached out to the politically indifferent younger generation by making a spectacular entrance on a three-wheel Harley Davidson at a motorbike festival ahead of the December parliamentary polls.

Gunmen abducted the son of a slain former governor from the eastern city of Lahore on Friday, relatives and police officials said.

An Indian-origin former analyst has been accused of providing confidential company information in the Raj Rajaratnam-led insider trading scheme, has been fined $34 million for his role in the scheme.

Libyan rebels have announced an amnesty for anyone within Col Muammar Gaddafi's "inner circle" who captures or kills him, and a $1.7m (£1m) reward.

A US diplomat at the Chennai consulate, who was caught in a row over her remarks of "dirty and dark" Tamilians, has enrolled herself in a cultural sensitivity course.