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GAZA (Reuters) - Bomb blasts rocked a cafe and a Hamas politician's home in the Gaza Strip on Friday, killing at least one Palestinian in one of the biggest flare-ups in internal violence since Islamists seized the enclave a year ago.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council was split on Thursday over how to push Myanmar to improve human rights and adopt democratic reforms as a U.N. special envoy prepared for a key visit to the Asian nation.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The U.S. economic downturn, high fuel prices and bad weather are all hitting the tourism business in Mexico as Americans stay away from the most popular resorts this summer.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A state ethics panel on Thursday said it filed charges against three aides to former Gov. Eliot Spitzer accused of leaking to newspapers information about his top Republican foe's travel on state aircraft.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly a year after a deadly bridge collapse in Minnesota, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a $1 billion bill on Thursday mandating inspections and repairs of federal bridges.

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's FARC guerrillas have released eight hostages in the first such handover since the rebel group was tricked in a military operation to free Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other captives on July 2, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - A Muslim Canadian has been awarded C$11,000 over an incident in which a co-worker falsely concluded he was involved in the September 11, 2001, attacks and reported him to police.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya and Italy will soon seal a deal worth "billions" to compensate for the European country's three-decade colonial rule, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's influential son said on Thursday.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - Republican John McCain said on Thursday he would like to give a speech in Germany as U.S. president not as a White House candidate, taking a swipe at rival Barack Obama while the Democrat gave a major address in Berlin.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Six members of a U.S.-backed neighborhood patrol and a civilian were killed in an attack by a female suicide bomber in northeast Iraq on Thursday, police said.

LONDON (Reuters) - Iran would be wrong to believe it will be "off the hook" over its disputed nuclear program during the transition to a new U.S. administration, a U.S. official said on Thursday.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations human rights committee said on Thursday Britain should ease back on tough "anti-terror" measures and take firm action to combat "negative public attitudes" towards Muslims.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives on Thursday failed to pass legislation intended to cool off gasoline prices by requiring the government to sell 70 million barrels of light sweet crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the national stockpile.

YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Cameroonian soldiers killed 10 gunmen who attacked them on Thursday in the Bakassi peninsula, a long-disputed territory Nigeria is transferring to Cameroon under a World Court order, Cameroon's Defence Ministry said.

KABUL (Reuters) - NATO will not enter Pakistan to hunt Taliban insurgents, but reserves the right to hit the militants there should they attack alliance troops across the border in Afghanistan, the alliance's chief said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Thursday urged his successor to carry on what he called his "freedom agenda" of promoting human rights, democracy, and free trade around the world.

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Two-thirds of U.S. Hispanic voters support Democrat Barack Obama for president over Republican John McCain and the partisan gap among the United States' fastest growing voter bloc is broader than at any point this decade, a study found.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday named South African judge Navanethem Pillay as the world body's new human rights chief, despite initial U.S. concerns about her background.

MADRID (Reuters) - Basque guerrilla group ETA planned to assassinate a top anti-terrorism judge, court sources said on Thursday, after police interrogated an ETA suspect arrested on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration has proposed shifting $226.5 million in U.S. counterterrorism aid to Pakistan to upgrade Pakistani F-16 fighters, U.S. officials said on Thursday.