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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.

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama has ruled out hosting a U.S. military base to replace one in Ecuador which is being reclaimed by the Quito government, a senior Panamanian official said on Friday.

KARACHI (Reuters) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf hit back at calls for his resignation on Friday, saying he was needed to help political parties avoid an economic meltdown and tackle a militant threat gripping the country.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland spurned as insufficient on Friday a U.S. offer to boost its air defenses in return for basing anti-missile interceptors on its soil but said it remained open to talks with Washington.

LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambia has demanded that South Africa explain why President Thabo Mbeki announced publicly that Zambian leader Levy Mwanawasa had died, state television reported on Friday.

YEREVAN (Reuters) - Thousands of opposition supporters marched through the Armenian capital on Friday and vowed to hold a month-long series of protests to demand the resignation of President Serzh Sarksyan and new elections.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - New European Union rules for immigration are fair and the bloc is more open to foreigners than some Latin American countries that are protesting about the changes, the head of the EU's executive said on Friday.

PARIS (Reuters) - French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt was given a hero's welcome on Friday in France, where President Nicolas Sarkozy had made her release a foreign policy priority and thousands had campaigned for her freedom for years.

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

LONDON (Reuters) - Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75 percent -- far more than previously estimated -- according to a confidential World Bank report published in a British newspaper on Friday.

ASADABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Twenty-two civilians, including women and children, were killed in an air strike by U.S.-led forces on Friday in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nuristan, an official said.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran responded on Friday to an incentives package offered by six world powers aimed at resolving a standoff over its disputed nuclear ambitions.

JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - Sudan's north and south armies have begun to withdraw their forces from the disputed oil-rich region of Abyei, officials said on Friday, after missing an end-June deadline agreed to by the former foes.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland spurned as insufficient on Friday a U.S. offer to boost its air defenses in return for basing anti-missile interceptors on its soil but said it remained open to talks with Washington.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt said on Friday he was confident about the United States' economic fundamentals in the long term despite a current rough patch and was quite optimistic about the future.

TOKYO (Reuters) - G8 leaders aim to present a united front against global inflation, driven by soaring oil and food prices, at a summit in Japan next week, but solving the problem requires more than just a strong message from rich nations.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, defiant despite growing African condemnation of his re-election, said on Friday the opposition must drop its claim to power and accept that he was the rightful head of state.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will respond on Friday to incentives offered by six world powers to try to entice Tehran to stop enriching uranium, which they fear could result in a nuclear bomb.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Friday sought the demolition of the houses of two Palestinians behind recent deadly attacks against Israelis after the attorney-general said the move was legally viable.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's communist parties said the government must tell them by Monday if it plans to press ahead with the next step in a controversial civilian nuclear deal with the United States, which they strongly oppose.