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ABYEI, Sudan (Reuters) - Thousands of civilians fled clashes between Sudan's former north-south civil war foes in the oil-rich central town of Abyei on Thursday, local officials said.

YEKATERINBURG, Russia (Reuters) - China, India and Russia called on Thursday for the creation of a security belt around Afghanistan to halt the spread of heroin.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Clashes between Shi'ite militiamen and security forces in Baghdad's Sadr City slum killed seven people and wounded 19 overnight, Iraqi police and hospitals said on Thursday.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Lawyers for Jacob Zuma, the leader of South Africa's ruling party, will meet prosecutors on Thursday to decide whether his corruption case should begin on August 4, the National Prosecuting Authority said.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main opposition party on Thursday rejected a delay in a run-off election which could unseat President Robert Mugabe, and called for an urgent meeting of countries in the region to avoid "rivers of dead people".

BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States and China both need to fend off a troubling rise in economic nationalism in order to keep their economies strong, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said on Thursday.

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suicide blast killed 18 police and civilians on Thursday in Afghanistan's western province of Farah, officials said.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rival Lebanese leaders are scheduled to talks in Qatar on Friday aiming to end a protracted political conflict that pushed the country to the brink of a new civil war.

KINSHASA (Reuters) - The United Nations is investigating allegations that its peacekeepers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo committed sexual abuses, which aid workers said involved paying children for sex.

DAMADOLA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Angry residents of a Pakistani village on the Afghan border stopped government officials on Thursday from approaching the ruins of a house struck by missiles suspected to have been fired by a U.S. drone.

JAIPUR, India (Reuters) - Indian police probed on Thursday whether Indian Islamist groups or Bangladeshi infiltrators were behind bombings in a popular Indian tourist city that killed 61 people this week, but made no major arrests.

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government said on Thursday its cyclone relief effort was moving along swiftly even as foreign powers warned of starvation and disease among up to 2.5 million people left destitute by the storm.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives Armed Services Committee conditionally called for a review Thursday of any illegal subsidies' role in a $35 billion refueling-aircraft contest lost by Boeing Co.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain said on Thursday he believes the Iraq war can be won by 2013, leaving a functioning democracy there and allowing most U.S. troops to come home.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats erupted in outrage on Thursday after President George W. Bush suggested a pledge by the party's presidential front-runner Barack Obama to meet Iran's leader was akin to appeasement of Nazi Germany.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush offered a peace prophecy for the Middle East on Thursday in which the enemies of the United States faced a future of defeat.

GHULAM ALI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Sergeant Chris Padron, a thick-set former cop from Texas turned police trainer in Afghanistan, fixed the group of earnest Afghan policemen with a hard stare and delivered his next question.

YINGXIU, China (Reuters) - The death toll from China's earthquake could soar to more than 50,000, state media reported on Thursday, as rescuers struggled to help survivors and hope faded for thousands buried under rubble.

CULIACAN, Mexico (Reuters) - Suspected drug hitmen threw grenades and opened fire on a police station in Mexico's Sinaloa state on Wednesday, just hours after the government sent thousands of troops to fight a powerful drug cartel there.

LA JOLLA, California (Reuters) - The United States accused unnamed members of Venezuela's left-wing government on Wednesday of conspiring against neighboring Colombia by supporting Marxist guerrillas.