VoteKansas.org

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli forces blockaded a Palestinian village on Saturday in what the army called an effort to curb protests against the construction of a West Bank barrier deemed illegal by the World Court.

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia found explosives set to be used in bombs across the capital in reprisal for this week's rescue of leftist rebels' highest-profile hostages, including Ingrid Betancourt, military officials said on Saturday.

LONDON (Reuters) - A film secretly taken by a Zimbabwe prison guard and smuggled out of the country shows the extent of the rigging that took place for the June 27 presidential run-off vote, the Guardian said on Saturday.

LAGOS (Reuters) - At least 18 people, 12 of them school children, were killed when the bus they were traveling in crashed on a busy highway in the southern Nigerian state of Delta, media reports said on Saturday.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Taliban militants released two Pakistani journalists on Saturday more than 36-hours after they were abducted in a tribal region near the Afghan border.

TOYAKO, Japan (Reuters) - Leaders of the Group of Eight rich nations meet this week in northern Japan to grapple with a raft of problems from soaring food and fuel prices to African poverty and global warming amid doubts about how much the annual diplomatic pageant can achieve.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A "new war" could break out in Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia if Tbilisi uses military force to resolve the conflict, Russia's Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A London-based Syrian human rights group said on Saturday that Syrian security forces had shot dead dozens of prisoners during a riot at a military jail near Damascus.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese leaders are finalizing a deal on the formation of a national unity government as stipulated in an agreement that ended the country's political crisis, political sources said on Saturday.

SANAA (Reuters) - At least four people were killed in an explosion near a postal office in the northern province of Saada in Yemen, a local official said on Saturday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Georgia's breakaway region Abkhazia said on Saturday Tbilisi had planned to take the area over by military force earlier this year but failed in its mission, Russian agencies reported.

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday said it was "not reasonable" to gather the Group of Eight (G8) leaders at an annual summit without the participation of strong emerging countries such as China and India.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A key regional party in India said on Saturday it backed the government over a controversial nuclear energy agreement with the United States, easing concerns the pact could trigger early elections.

KABUL (Reuters) - Two gunmen shot dead an Afghan parliamentarian near his home in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran vowed on Saturday to pursue its uranium enrichment program, a day after delivering its response to an incentives package by world powers trying to curb its nuclear ambitions.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean police said about 50,000 people protested in Seoul on Saturday against a U.S. beef import deal and the policies of the new president, whose government has faced weeks of street rallies.

LA PAZ (Reuters) - Regional governors pushing for greater autonomy from Bolivia's central government said Friday they will not boycott an August recall vote that could force them out of office despite initially resisting the ballot.

ULAN BATOR (Reuters) - Troops pulled back from the streets of the Mongolian capital on Saturday and political leaders called for calm ahead of the lifting of emergency rule that was declared after rioting over alleged election fraud.

BOGOTA/PARIS (Reuters) - Colombia showed a video on Friday of the rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages where their anger turned to ecstasy as theater-trained military agents duped and overpowered leftist rebels.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jesse Helms, a die-hard anti-communist firebrand who championed a wide range of conservative causes in his 30 years in the U.S. Senate, died early on Friday, aged 86, his foundation said.