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GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) has for the first time since 2003 redeployed expatriate staff to Iraq, the United Nations agency said on Thursday.

PETROZAVODSK, Russia (Reuters) - Modern communications technology should become a gateway to democracy in Russia, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday, ordering his ministers to improve online public access to the government.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The top U.S. and EU trade officials expressed cautious optimism on Thursday about next week's make-or-break talks to secure an outline trade deal.

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States will announce in the next month that it plans to establish a diplomatic presence in Tehran for the first time in 30 years, a British newspaper said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top trade negotiator of the United States said on Thursday she was "cautiously optimistic" about the chances of a breakthrough next week in key talks on the World Trade Organisation's Doha round.

LONDON (Reuters) - A British suspect in the disappearance of 3-year-old Madeleine McCann in Portugal last year won 600,000 pounds ($1.2 million) in libel damages on Thursday for "the utter destruction" of his life.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Eighty-three percent of Pakistanis want President Pervez Musharraf to be removed and judges he sacked restored, according to a survey released by the U.S.-based International Republican Institute on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama raised $52 million in June, his campaign said on Thursday, a jump from last month and more than double the $22 million raised by his Republican rival John McCain.

HARARE (Reuters) - Talks to resolve Zimbabwe's political crisis have stalled after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai refused to sign a framework for negotiations, his party said on Thursday.

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Iran's foreign minister said on Thursday U.S. participation in nuclear talks was "positive", but France said big powers still wanted Tehran to make specific proposals to resolve a dispute over Iran's nuclear work.

MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish court on Thursday overturned the convictions of four people found guilty in connection with the 2004 Madrid train bombings, drawing protests from victims of Europe's deadliest Islamist attack.

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's Supreme Court has rejected a third appeal for a case review by three men on death row for their role in the 2002 Bali bombings, a court official said on Thursday, removing another obstacle to their execution. The Bali court official, who declined to be identified, said the Denpasar District court had received a rejection letter and would hold a news conference on Friday.

NAHARIYA, Israel (Reuters) - Thousands attended Israeli funerals on Thursday for two slain soldiers returned in a prisoner swap with Hezbollah and their grief contrasted with Lebanon's joy over guerrillas freed in the deal.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese court charged a man on Thursday with premeditated murder for stabbing to death six police officers in Shanghai, where he had been held by police for questioning the year before, state media reported.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama has a 7-point lead on Republican John McCain in the U.S. presidential race, and holds a small edge on the crucial question of who would best manage the economy, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's lawyers cross-examined on Thursday a U.S. businessman whose damaging portrait of a politician with his hand out for cash stands at the centre of a corruption case.

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A group claiming to be the leaders of a four-year-old separatist insurgency in Thailand's Muslim south said on Thursday they had agreed to a ceasefire, but analysts were very skeptical.

MANAGUA (Reuters) - Nicaragua's leftist president, Daniel Ortega, said on Wednesday he was willing to accept a request from Colombia's biggest guerrilla force for talks to try to help Colombia end its four-decade-long civil war.

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition troops have killed eight Afghan civilians in an air strike in the western province of Farah during a raid against suspected militants, the U.S. military said.

JAKARTA (Reuters) - The execution of three Indonesian men convicted for the 2002 Bali bombs is not imminent since the Supreme Court still needs to respond to a legal appeal, a spokesman for the Attorney-General's office said on Thursday.