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MOSCOW (Reuters) - A top manager of the now defunct YUKOS business empire was sentenced on Friday by a Russian court to life in prison for ordering a series of high profile murders, a verdict he dismissed as the result of a show trial organized by the Kremlin.

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama called on Friday for a package of new measures to fight rising energy costs, including a $1,000 tax rebate for low- and middle-income workers.

NOVOSIBIRSK, Russia (Reuters) - A shadow swept across Russia on Friday, delighting skywatchers who flocked to Siberia from around the world to see a rare total eclipse of the sun.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has a clear edge in the Kadima party race to replace scandal-hit Ehud Olmert, polls showed on Friday, but officials questioned her ability to form a coalition and become prime minister.

PODGORICA (Reuters) - Montenegro has charged eight former soldiers over their role in the 1999 killing of 23 ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo, a lawyer of the victims' families said on Friday.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - In Tripoli's most deprived areas, Lebanon's lingering political troubles are being fought out in a sectarian conflict that threatens to cause more bloodshed.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has said it is unimaginable he could get a fair trial at the U.N. war crimes tribunal because the world's media have already branded him a war criminal.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The number of civilians killed in Iraq last month fell to less than a quarter of the toll in July 2007, government figures released on Friday showed, underscoring a dramatic improvement in security.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Friday it has warned U.S. store managers in recent weeks about the possible consequences of a labor-friendly bill backed by Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama that would make it easier for workers to form unions.

GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas security forces arrested Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's top Fatah representatives in the Gaza Strip on Friday, ratcheting up tensions between the rival factions.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Two aftershocks on Friday hit the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, the site of May's devastating earthquake, with the second felt strongly in the provincial capital Chengdu, Xinhua news agency said. More than 69,200 people have been confirmed dead and some 18,000 are still listed as missing after a 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan on May 12, the deadliest in the country since 1976.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The clock is ticking for Iran to respond to an offer by major powers on its nuclear program, but European diplomats say they are ready to wait a few more days beyond Saturday's informal deadline for an answer.

PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia (Reuters) - The wife of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen led Buddhist monks and soldiers in prayers at a 900-year-old Hindu border temple on Friday amid a three-week military stand-off with Thailand.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia will back an India-U.S. nuclear agreement at an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meeting in Vienna, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said on Friday.

BALCILAR, Turkey (Reuters) - A gas explosion killed at least 16 female students and injured 27 others, wrecking a dormitory at a girls' school in southern Turkey on Friday, Interior Minister Besir Atalay said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush will likely have to walk a careful line when he visits South Korea next week -- pushing to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons while sidestepping several other tense fights.

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's military junta has charged popular comedian and leading dissident Zarganar with public order offences, which could see him jailed for up to two years, a lawyer said on Friday.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican police have captured a key Colombian drug trafficker who was a top supplier of cocaine to the fractured Sinaloa cartel, police said on Thursday.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim is gathering support to file a no-confidence vote against the government in six weeks, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Legislation aimed at curbing credit card billing practices that surprise borrowers with unexpected interest rate increases and fees was approved on Thursday by a U.S. House of Representatives committee.