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CARACAS (Reuters) - Washington-foe Venezuela plans to launch an observation satellite within five years to map its territory, President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday.

LONDON (Reuters) - British troops accidentally killed four civilians and wounded three others with rockets during an operation against Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan, NATO and British officials said on Sunday.

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - The leftist front-runner in the race to be El Salvador's next president said on Sunday he would reestablish diplomatic relations with Cuba if elected.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - A Vietnamese diplomat and three Chinese tourists were kidnapped at gunpoint on their way to Rio de Janeiro's famed Christ the Redeemer statue but managed to escape from their captors a day later, police said on Sunday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A string of potential vice presidential candidates were queried on Sunday about the possibility of being picked for the No. 2 spot but all remained mum on their chances.

RENO, Nevada (Reuters) - White House hopeful Barack Obama talked energy policy on Sunday with T. Boone Pickens, a billionaire oil investor who funded the "Swift Boat" attacks on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said it had put a dummy satellite into orbit on a home-grown rocket for the first time on Sunday -- a move likely to increase Western concerns about its nuclear ambitions.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Embattled Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has been a "good ally," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday, but she refused to say whether he would receive U.S. asylum if he stepped down.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pentagon chief Robert Gates dismissed as "empty rhetoric" on Sunday Russian warnings that Moscow would target Poland for a possible military strike because Warsaw agreed to host part of a U.S. missile shield.

Belgrade (Reuters) - Serbia's foreign minister said on Sunday it was a mistake for the U.N. mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) to hand over policing in the province to the European Union without the consent of Serbia and the U.N. Security Council.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama raised more than $51 million in July, his campaign said on Saturday, nearly double that of his Republican rival John McCain.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia must honor its pledge to start withdrawing its troops from Georgia, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday, saying Moscow had broken earlier promises to pull out.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Five Sudanese men, including a former army officer, made their first appearance in court on Sunday to face charges over the New Year's Day killing in Khartoum of a U.S. aid worker and his driver.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel confirmed on Sunday it would release 200 of some 11,000 Palestinians it holds prisoner in the hope of shoring up support for President Mahmoud Abbas and the peace talks he is conducting with the Jewish state.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon aims to complete steps towards establishing diplomatic ties with Syria within weeks, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora was quoted as saying on Sunday.

BAGHDAD/KERBALA, Iraq (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Shi'ite pilgrims streamed home from Iraq's shrine city of Kerbala on Sunday at the end of an annual holy rite that passed without the factional violence that marred it last year.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The secretary general of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said on Sunday he believed a power-sharing deal with the country's ruling party will be reached soon.

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan has changed the venue for its independence celebration on Monday to an undisclosed location, an official said, after President Hamid Karzai survived an attempt on his life by Taliban in a military parade in April.

TBILISI (Reuters) - Russia announced it would begin withdrawing forces from Georgia on Monday after a war that dealt a humiliating blow to the Black Sea state and raised fears for energy supplies to Europe.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Almost 50 Tamil Tiger fighters and seven soldiers have been killed and an important rebel training base has been captured in fighting in Sri Lanka's north over the past two days, the military said on Sunday.