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BOSTON (Reuters) - Hedge fund managers are famous for betting against conventional wisdom, and this year many are doing just that by backing Democrat Barack Obama's White House bid and defying Wall Street's usual embrace of Republicans.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Friday it was still processing a request by Reuters for video footage from U.S. helicopters and other materials relating to the killing of two Iraqi staff in Baghdad a year ago.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama supports a civilian nuclear trade deal between India and the United States and would not push for changes to it, an Indian news magazine quoted him as saying.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Friday that his chief aim at present is to back government-sponsored mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in their "current form", giving no sign a government bailout of them was imminent.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's opposition on Friday accused government security forces of murdering a polling agent in fresh political violence that could undermine preliminary talks with President Robert Mugabe's ruling party.

BERLIN (Reuters) - The German government denied on Friday that Washington had put any pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel to block a proposed speech by U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama in Berlin in late July.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon ended weeks of wrangling on Friday and formed a unity government in which Hezbollah and its allies hold effective veto power, as agreed under a deal that ended a paralyzing political conflict in the country.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The "best thing" for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac right now would be for Congress to pass new oversight legislation, the White House said on Friday, amid growing concerns about the mortgage giants' funding problems.

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A U.S. coalition force air strike on Sunday killed 47 civilians, including 39 women and children, in the eastern province of Nangarhar, an Afghan official said on Friday.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli police accused Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of fraud on Friday and said a probe into alleged bribe-taking had been widened to look at whether he made duplicate claims for travel expenses.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese leaders agreed on a unity government on Friday that gave veto power for the Hezbollah-led opposition as agreed under a deal that ended a paralyzing political conflict in the country.

WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pilotless U.S. drones armed with missiles have stepped up patrols over Pashtun villages on the Afghan-Pakistan border, hunting for Taliban and al Qaeda militants and fraying nerves below.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Friday Iran's missile tests showed there is no military justification for U.S. plans to deploy missile defenses in eastern Europe because Tehran's rockets cannot travel that far.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Friday Iran's missile tests showed there is no military justification for U.S. plans to deploy missile defenses in eastern Europe because Tehran's rockets cannot travel that far.

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Property prices are creeping higher, shops are staying open later and more schoolchildren are skipping class to help out in their parents' businesses.

PARIS (Reuters) - The European Union voiced concern on Friday over Iranian missiles tests in the Gulf and stepped up calls on Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment within its disputed nuclear program.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's government will announce the date for a confidence vote on Friday as it fights for survival after its communist allies withdrew their support to protest against a U.S. nuclear deal.

DHAKA (Reuters) - A wild elephant straying into a village trampled four members of a family to death and injured another in southeastern Bangladesh, witnesses said on Friday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will reject a call by the United States for international mediators to take a bigger role in defusing a row with Georgia, Interfax news agency quoted a Russian diplomatic source as saying on Friday.

SEOUL (Reuters) - A North Korean soldier gunned down a 53-year-old South Korean woman tourist who wandered into a military area at a mountain resort in the North in the predawn hours of Friday, a South Korean official said.