WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is pledging to eliminate the "scourge" of sexual assault in the military while cautioning that it will take a long and sustained effort by all military members.

"There is no silver bullet to solving this problem," Obama said Thursday after meeting with Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel and the top brass from all the military services.

SYDNEY - An Australian politician says he has learned a valuable lesson in social networking after he "liked" a Facebook photo without realizing that it showed a teenage prankster exposing himself.

Western Australia Minister for Education Peter Collier said he clicked the "like" button under what he thought was an innocent photo of the then-16-year-old in late 2011. Collier apologized Thursday and said he had no idea that the teen, who was otherwise fully clothed and posing alongside an older man, was playing a prank commonly known as "sneaky nuts."

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh - A once-fearsome cyclone that was threatening Bangladesh and Myanmar dissipated quickly, causing some deaths but largely relieving authorities who had told more than 1 million people to leave vulnerable coastal areas in preparation for a far worse storm.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama, seeking to regain his footing amid controversies hammering the White House, named a temporary chief for the scandal-marred federal tax agency Thursday and pressed Congress to approve new security money to prevent another Benghazi-style terrorist attack on U.S. diplomatic missions abroad.

KINSHASA, Congo - The government of Congo says more than 20 people have died in a collapse at a bush mine in the region of Masisi in North Kivu province. That's in the far eastern part of the country.

The statement sent to reporters late Friday and signed by government spokesman Lambert Mende says the mine near the village of Rubaye collapsed Friday evening. The statement says a search is on for any possible survivors.

North Kivu is rich in minerals, including coltan and gold. Illegal and unregulated bush mines dot the countryside.

KABUL - A suicide car bombing tore through a U.S. convoy in Kabul on Thursday, killing at least 15 people including six Americans in a blast so powerful it rattled the other side of the Afghan capital. U.S. soldiers rushed to help, some wearing only T-shirts or shorts under their body armour.

BILLINGS, Mont. - The three-decade fight for freedom by a Montana man convicted of the 1979 slaying of a teenage classmate entered what could be its final stage this week, when the Montana Supreme Court ordered him back to prison and took away his brief taste of normal life.

But from the time he confessed to out-of-state police four years after the notorious killing of Kim Nees, almost nothing about the Barry Beach case has been routine — and advocates promised they will find other ways to prove his innocence.

BAGHDAD - Car bombs hit Shiite neighbourhoods of the Iraqi capital for the second day in a row on Thursday, part of a series of attacks across the country that left 21 people dead and raised concerns over a return to sectarian bloodshed.

Baghdad police said the first blast hit a bus and taxi stop during the morning rush hour in the city's eastern Sadr City neighbourhood. Nine people were killed, including a 7-year old child, and 16 were wounded in that attack, two officers said.

Portraying himself as a "global" candidate with a world view, Ng Ser Miang of Singapore is hoping to break the European stranglehold on the top Olympic job.

The 64-year-old diplomat and businessman entered the IOC presidential race Thursday, pitching his credentials as a consensus-builder who can lead the Olympics through challenging times and bring more young people into the fold.

MANILA, Philippines - What do you do when two candidates running for mayor in the Philippines get exactly the same number of votes? You get them to toss a coin.

Marvic Feraren and Boyet Py both received 3,236 votes for mayor of San Teodoro town in Mindoro Oriental province in Monday's elections.

The Elections Commissions suggested the two men flip a coin five times each, which is allowed under the country's Election Code to break a tie.

Feraren won Tuesday, but not before a second round of coin flipping.

They tied in the first round too.