World News

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Gaza security officials say two bombs went off in Gaza City early Friday, killing one man.

SAN'A, Yemen - A Yemeni security official says a suicide car bomber has rammed a vehicle into the Interior Ministry's headquarters in eastern Yemen, killing a policeman and injuring eight others.

BAGHDAD - Just two weeks before the start of the Olympics, Iraq was told Thursday it's not welcome in Beijing because of a political feud in Baghdad that angered the games' guardians and exiled a country that arrived to a roaring ovation at the opening ceremony four years ago.

SINGAPORE (AFP) - Brazilian striker Jo has vowed to repay Mark Hughes' faith and score a hatful of goals for his new club Manchester City next season.

MACAU (AFP) - New Chelsea coach Luiz Felipe Scolari hit back at comparisons with his flamboyant predecessor Jose Mourinho and also resisted pressure for more attacking play.

VIENNA, Austria - An Austrian newspaper is reporting that captured war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic worked in Vienna as "miracle healer" during his years under cover.

LIMA, Peru - Peru's Southern Copper Corp. on Thursday said second-quarter profit fell 24 percent from the year-ago period amid strikes and higher fuel and production costs.

CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands - The U.S. Virgin Islands may build a pipeline to replace diesel-generated power with natural gas brought in from a bigger grid in the nearby U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, the head of the islands' utility company said Thursday.

MONTECRISTI, Ecuador - A special assembly on Thursday approved a new draft constitution granting Ecuador's leftist president broad powers, including the ability to dissolve Congress and set monetary policy, and freeing him to run for office through 2017.

LUSAKA (AFP) - Ex-Zambian president Frederick Chiluba, on trial for corruption, has been allowed to return to South Africa for medical treatment following the rise in his blood pressure, his spokesman said Friday.

UNITED NATIONS - One of South Africa's leading female jurists who won acclaim defending apartheid opponents was nominated Thursday to serve as the next United Nations high commissioner for human rights.

BORDEAUX, France (AFP) - South Africa and the European Union Friday hold their first ever summit in Bordeaux Friday with Pretoria set to try and narrow differences with its top trading partner on the political crisis in Zimbabwe.

TOKYO, (AFP) - Flamboyant dotcom tycoon Takafumi Horie on Friday lost his appeal against a two-and-a-half year prison term for fraud in a scandal that rocked Japan's stock market.

COLOMBO, (AFP) - Heavy ground battles across Sri Lanka's north claimed the lives of 59 Tamil Tiger rebels and two soldiers, the defence ministry said Friday.

VIENNA, Austria - A senior envoy said Friday that Iran wants to expand its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, but said the IAEA should not be cast as a "U.N. watchdog" looking for signs of secret nuclear weapons programs.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - A Muslim Canadian has been awarded C$11,000 over an incident in which a co-worker falsely concluded he was involved in the September 11, 2001, attacks and reported him to police.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Oil prices will continue falling and dip below $100 a barrel by the end of this year, unmasking an "export recession" in Canada that will result in anemic growth, a government export agency said on Thursday.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - A Canadian bank is collecting tens of thousands of unwanted tennis balls, which it says it will recycle to reduce noise levels in primary schools.

PERTH, Australia, July 25, 2008 (AFP) - The United States and Australia on Friday urged Pakistan to do more to control militant activity in its border areas to stem the growing insurgency in Afghanistan.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Australian lesbian couple have lost a controversial court battle after trying to sue their doctor for having healthy twins from an in vitro fertilisation procedure (IVF), with doctors on Friday praising the verdict.

CANBERRA, Australia - Australia's prime minister, who has won applause for apologizing to Aborigines for past wrongs, has revived plans for a constitutional revision to recognize the country's indigenous people.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A family court judge in New Zealand has had enough with parents giving their children bizarre names here, and did something about it.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - New Zealand students protesting the Iraq war offered a reward to anyone who carries out a citizen's arrest of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit to the country Friday.

VIENNA, Austria - Iran signaled Thursday that it will no longer cooperate with U.N. experts probing for signs of clandestine nuclear weapons work, confirming the investigation is at a dead end a year after it began.