World News

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government reacted sharply Friday to published allegations that the U.S. spied on Iraq's prime minister, warning that future ties with the United States could be in jeopardy if the report is true.

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida's top commander in Afghanistan warned of more attacks against the West in a video posted on the Web that paid tribute to a suicide bomber said to have carried out the June bombing of the Danish Embassy in Pakistan.

JERUSALEM - Israel allowed Palestinian security forces in the West Bank to receive a shipment of about 1,000 Kalashnikov rifles and tens of thousands of bullets in a step aimed at bolstering the moderate Palestinian government there, an Israeli defense official said Friday.

AMMAN, Jordan - Iraq's envoy to Jordan says Baghdad will send planes and buses to bring home 520 Iraqis who fled to Jordan after the US-led invasion in 2003.

BEIT IBA, West Bank - Tony Blair toured a Palestinian aluminum factory and was told it runs at one-third capacity because of Israeli import restrictions. He promised he'll take it up with Israeli authorities.

MADRID, Spain - Spanish police have arrested a suspected Colombian drug trafficker listed among the most wanted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the police force said in a statement Friday.

Issues dividing neighbors Armenia and Turkey:

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey and Armenia are hoping soccer diplomacy will help them overcome decades of antagonism rooted in Ottoman-era massacres of Armenians that many historians call a genocide.

BARCELONA (AFP) - Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has been ruled out of England's opening World Cup 2010 qualifier against Andorra here on Saturday after failing to recover from a back injury.

LONDON (AFP) - British triple Olympic sailing champion Ben Ainslie on Friday said he may not compete in the 2012 London Games in order to concentrate on winning the America's Cup.

GONAIVES, Haiti - A ship carrying 33 tons of U.N. relief supplies managed to dock Friday, the first significant aid delivery after four days without food or water for thousands of survivors from Tropical Storm Hanna.

NASSAU, Bahamas - Tropical Storm Hanna was accelerating early Friday as it made its way toward the United States' southeast coast.

GONAIVES, Haiti - Haiti's government says the death toll from Tropical Storm Hanna has more than doubled to 137, with most of the deaths coming in the flooded port city of Gonaives.

GONAIVES, Haiti - Entering a flooded city on inflatable boats, U.N. peacekeepers found hundreds of hungry people stranded for two days on rooftops and upper floors Wednesday as the fetid carcasses of drowned farm animals bobbed in soupy floodwaters.

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico - Six Mexican officers have been placed under house arrest on suspicion of homicide after an American man died while in police custody in the resort city of San Jose del Cabo, a prosecutor said Monday.

TRIPOLI (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Libya on Friday on the first such visit in more than half a century, marking a new chapter in Washington's reconciliation with the former enemy state.

LUANDA (Reuters) - Delays marred Angola's first vote in 16 years on Friday, a parliamentary election in which the ruling party is expected to extend its hold of more than three decades in the oil-rich African nation.

HARARE (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki is expected in Harare on Monday to continue mediation efforts to break a deadlock in power-sharing talks, a Zimbabwean official said on Friday.

NAIROBI (AFP) - Three million children in the Horn of Africa are at risk from death or disease as the effects of drought, conflict and rising food prices worsen, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said Friday.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Top U.S. diplomat Condoleezza Rice arrived in Tripoli on Friday on the first trip by a U.S. secretary of state to Libya since 1953, and said it was proof that Washington had no "permanent enemies."

HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - Air strikes killed eight Taliban rebels including three militant commanders in southwestern Afghanistan early Friday, the Afghan army said, adding two civilians were also slain.

ANKARA (AFP) - Turkey's President Abdullah Gul goes to Armenia Saturday to watch a football match and start to tackle nearly 100 years of animosity over Ottoman Empire massacres that has left the two neighbours barely able to talk to each other.

WASHINGTON - U.S.-led forces are achieving a "slow win" in Afghanistan, but the less-than-decisive approach must be accelerated soon, a key American commander there said Friday.

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan's presidential hopefuls made a final push for support Friday on the eve of an election that slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's widower is expected to win.

VIENNA, Austria - India pledged Friday not to engage in a new arms race as talks continued in Vienna over whether to let the U.S. sell India nuclear material and technology for civilian use.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's job market rebounded slightly in August from heavy job losses in August, easing fears of a sharper-than-expected economic downturn on the eve of a federal election campaign to be announced this weekend.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper will trigger an October 14 general election campaign this Sunday after 2-1/2 years at the helm of a minority government, spokeswoman Carolyn Stewart-Olsen said.

TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto's main stock market index extended its losses on Friday as disappointing U.S. jobs data and falling oil prices weighed on the market.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Support in Quebec for the separatist Bloc Quebecois has plummeted ahead of an expected October 14 federal election in Canada, a new poll released on Friday showed.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - The Liberal Party called on Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz to resign on Thursday over comments he made about meat inspection in the wake of a food-poisoning outbreak linked to 19 deaths.

CANBERRA (AFP) - Lawyer, academic, women's activist and grandmother Quentin Bryce was sworn in as Australia's governor general Friday, the first woman to act as the British queen's representative Down Under.

SYDNEY (AFP) - The embattled premier of Australia's most populous state, New South Wales, was forced to resign Friday after his party withdrew support for him over a dramatic reshuffle of his cabinet.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's 25th governor-general was sworn into office as the representative of Britain's Queen Elizabeth on Friday, with republicans holding out little hope that Australia will abolish the job any time soon.

Corrects paragraph three to show school is west of Sydney.

SYDNEY, Australia - A former Roman Catholic priest already facing dozens of charges related to allegations of sexual abuse at an exclusive Australian boarding school has been charged with an additional 60 child sex offenses, police said Wednesday.

NASSAU, Bahamas - Tropical Storm Hanna was accelerating early Friday as it made its way toward the United States' southeast coast.

POTI, Georgia - The flagship of the U.S. Navy's Mediterranean fleet anchored outside a key Georgian port Friday, defiantly bringing in tons of humanitarian aid to a city still partly occupied by hundreds of Russian troops.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - An Egyptian cargo ship with 25 crew members has been hijacked by pirates off Somalia's coast, the 10th vessel to be seized in less than two months, a global maritime watchdog said Friday.

PARIS - It's being called the coup de grace for France's decade-long experiment with a 35-hour work week — a policy that inspired both envy and ridicule in Europe and the U.S., and even some copycats.

KIEV, Ukraine - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has pledged U.S. support for Ukraine following last month's war between neighboring Russia and Georgia.