VoteKansas.org

BEIJING (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy flew into Beijing on a fence-mending mission on Friday but still insisted on bringing up the tricky subject of human rights with Chinese leaders, a senior government official said on Friday.

KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - The failure of Iraqi politicians to resolve competing ethnic claims for the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk is storing up explosive problems for the country's future.

BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin discussed the fighting in Georgia, the former Soviet republic that is pushing to join NATO, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said on Friday.

STUDENKA, Czech Republic (Reuters) - An international express train hit a collapsed bridge at high speed in the Czech Republic on Friday, killing at least seven people and injuring about 70.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Eyes were on Pakistan's generals on Friday for any gesture of support for President Pervez Musharraf a day after a four-month-old civilian coalition declared plans to impeach the former army chief.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain, France, Germany and the United States are considering imposing additional sanctions on Iran over its nuclear work, possibly in the energy, reinsurance or financial sectors, a senior British official said on Friday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - American labor leaders are urging their white working class members to put aside racial biases that could undermine Barack Obama's union-backed bid to become the United States' first black president.

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition forces accidentally killed four Afghan women and a child along with several militants during an operation targeting a Taliban insurgent, a U.S. military statement said on Friday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Countless Chinese will stay locked in on Friday night, watching the Beijing Olympics open on television. Quite a few will do so against their will.

TOKYO (Reuters) - An Air China flight from central Japan turned back on Friday after the airline received a bomb threat in an email that also said the Beijing Olympic Games site would be attacked, Japanese police and media said.

NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Mauritania's coup leaders have announced they will appoint a government to run the country until new elections, defying international demands to reinstate the first democratically elected president.

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's junta arrested 48 activists on Friday for a protest march marking 20 years since the army crushed an "8-8-88" democracy uprising with the loss of an estimated 3,000 lives, an opposition official said.

HARARE (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki, mediating in Zimbabwe's post-election crisis, will go to Harare on Saturday amid growing optimism a power-sharing deal can be reached between the ruling party and the opposition.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council voted on Thursday to keep the United Nations mission in Iraq for another year, as Baghdad urged the world body to do more to help it transform into a functioning democracy.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who last week threw Israeli politics into turmoil by announcing plans to resign, was questioned by police for a fifth time on Friday in Jerusalem over bribery and fraud allegations.

BEIJING (Reuters) - President George W. Bush wasted no time on Friday raising the touchy issues of religious freedom and free speech in China, hours before he was to attend the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

TOKYO (Reuters) - A short, sharp quake of magnitude 4.5 jolted Tokyo on Friday, but there were no immediate reports of damage and the Japan Meteorological Agency said no tsunami warning was issued.

MIAMI (Reuters) - A man with self-described mental health problems was ordered held without bail in Florida on Thursday on charges that he had threatened to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama or President George W. Bush.

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines called on Muslim rebels to rein in their members on Friday after some guerrillas refused to heed government orders to leave Catholic farmlands in the south.

MEGVREKISI, Georgia (Reuters) - Georgia said on Friday its forces were in control of the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, but rebels said Russian armored vehicles had entered the northern edges of the city.