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DUBLIN (Reuters) - More than 100 nations formally agreed on Friday to ban the use of cluster bombs but debate continued on loopholes that could benefit powers such as the United States, which has refused to take part in talks on a ban.

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese man who was mystified when food kept disappearing from his kitchen, set up a hidden camera and found an unknown woman living secretly in his closet, Japanese media said on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States pressed Israel on Friday to let seven Gaza Strip Palestinians travel to the United States to study on coveted U.S. government Fulbright fellowships and Israel said it was working on the issue.

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli troops used gunfire and teargas on Friday to keep more than 3,000 Hamas supporters from approaching one of the Gaza Strip's main border crossings with Israel, wounding at least six Palestinians, witnesses said.

After five months of voting, 16 months of campaigning and more surprises, reversals and comebacks than any U.S. political race deserves, the grueling duel for the Democratic presidential nomination could be entering its final days.

BUJUMBURA (Reuters) - The exiled leader of Burundi's last rebel group returned to the capital on Friday to begin implementing a stalled deal seen as the final obstacle to peace in the tiny central African country.

LONDON (Reuters) - Spanish fishermen handed out free fish while European truckers and seamen from Portugal to Bulgaria blocked roads and ports on Friday, demanding government action to curb rising fuel prices.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan security forces along with U.S.-led coalition forces regained control of a district centre in the province of Ghazni after the Taliban had captured it overnight, provincial governor, Shir Khosti told Reuters.

JAIPUR, India (Reuters) - At least three people were killed on Friday in clashes between police and an ethnic Indian group demanding job and college quotas, taking the death toll to 42 in a week of protests.

KYAUKTAN, Myanmar (Reuters) - Myanmar's junta started evicting destitute families from government-run cyclone relief centers on Friday, apparently fearing the 'tented villages' might become permanent.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has lashed out at rumor-mongers for speculation he planned to quit to avoid being forced out by the new government, and for trying to cause a rift between him and the army.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A White House race between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama could shake up the political map in November, putting new states in play and shifting the odds in some traditional battlegrounds like Florida and Ohio.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda is essentially defeated in Iraq and Saudi Arabia and on the defensive throughout much of the world, CIA Director Michael Hayden said in a Washington Post interview published on Friday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A gun-toting Chinese official who owned two Ferraris and liked driving around in an amoured personnel carrier has been jailed for life for illegal weapons possession and fraud, state media reported on Friday.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Global auction house Christie's sold a record $310.7 million worth of Asian art at its Hong Kong spring sales this week, cementing the region's reputation as one of the most promising in a thriving international market.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Thursday announced $1.2 billion in loans and grant financing to expand its assistance to poor countries struggling with the effects of soaring fuel and food costs.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senior U.S. and Libyan officials are meeting in London this week to try to reach a deal on compensation cases from the Lockerbie air disaster and other 1980s incidents, a Bush administration official said on Thursday.

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - A helicopter crashed into a building in a busy central district of Panama City on Thursday, killing at least 11 people including Chile's federal police chief.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican issued its most explicit decree so far against the ordination of women priests on Thursday, punishing them and the bishops who try to ordain them with automatic excommunication.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Iraq pressed its creditors to cancel about $60 billion in debts at an international conference on Thursday, but two of its biggest creditors, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, sent only junior representatives to hear the call.