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SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - Three people, including a former congressman, were shot and killed as violence marred the close of campaigning before Friday's presidential election in the Dominican Republic, authorities said.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on Thursday that opens the door to a stronger U.N. presence in Somalia and possible deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in the lawless Horn of Africa country.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen opened fire on a car carrying two Iranian diplomats in Baghdad on Thursday, wounding them and two other people in the vehicle, an Iranian embassy official said.

IJEGUN, Nigeria (Reuters) - At least 100 people were killed and scores injured when fuel from a pipeline ruptured by a bulldozer caught fire and exploded on Thursday in a village near Nigeria's biggest city of Lagos, the Red Cross said.

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian guerrilla computer documents that Bogota says are proof Venezuela and Ecuador supported the Marxist rebels are authentic and show no evidence of tampering, Interpol said on Thursday.

PARIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of French teachers and other public sector workers went on strike on Thursday to protest against job cuts and reforms announced by conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy's government.

LAGOS (Reuters) - Several people were burnt to death and scores injured when fuel from a pipeline ruptured by an earthmover building a road on the outskirts of Lagos caught fire, the Red Cross said on Thursday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed on Thursday to impose law and order in northern Iraq and said an offensive against al Qaeda militants would end the "dark days" of shootings and bomb attacks.

ABYEI, Sudan (Reuters) - Thousands of civilians fled clashes between Sudan's former north-south civil war foes in the oil-rich central town of Abyei on Thursday before a ceasefire was agreed, officials said.

TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - A decade ago, economists hailed Tijuana as a place where cheap Mexican labor and U.S. financing could meet, attracting Asian firms eager to set up manufacturing plants to export to the United States.

KIGALI (Reuters) - A 90-year-old Rwandan genocide survivor has been stabbed and burnt to death by a gang that included four assailants who had confessed to taking part in the 1994 slaughter, a body representing genocide survivors said on Thursday.

ABYEI, Sudan (Reuters) - Thousands of civilians fled clashes between Sudan's former north-south civil war foes in the oil-rich central town of Abyei on Thursday, local officials said.

YEKATERINBURG, Russia (Reuters) - China, India and Russia called on Thursday for the creation of a security belt around Afghanistan to halt the spread of heroin.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Clashes between Shi'ite militiamen and security forces in Baghdad's Sadr City slum killed seven people and wounded 19 overnight, Iraqi police and hospitals said on Thursday.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Lawyers for Jacob Zuma, the leader of South Africa's ruling party, will meet prosecutors on Thursday to decide whether his corruption case should begin on August 4, the National Prosecuting Authority said.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main opposition party on Thursday rejected a delay in a run-off election which could unseat President Robert Mugabe, and called for an urgent meeting of countries in the region to avoid "rivers of dead people".

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suicide blast killed 18 police and civilians on Thursday in Afghanistan's western province of Farah, officials said.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rival Lebanese leaders are scheduled to talks in Qatar on Friday aiming to end a protracted political conflict that pushed the country to the brink of a new civil war.

KINSHASA (Reuters) - The United Nations is investigating allegations that its peacekeepers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo committed sexual abuses, which aid workers said involved paying children for sex.

DAMADOLA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Angry residents of a Pakistani village on the Afghan border stopped government officials on Thursday from approaching the ruins of a house struck by missiles suspected to have been fired by a U.S. drone.