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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.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Wednesday it was sending an envoy to join nuclear talks with Iran to signal to Tehran and others that Washington wanted a diplomatic solution to the impasse.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican troops seized a small submarine smuggling drugs in the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, the military said.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Police investigating a sodomy allegation against Malaysian opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim warned on Thursday they could compel him to give a DNA sample, threatening to further stoke tensions in the highly charged case.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in a rare public appearance, welcomed five Lebanese freed from captivity in Israel on Wednesday after his guerrilla group returned the bodies of two captured Israeli soldiers.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is prepared to make "enormous" cuts in farm subsidy spending limits and its barriers to foreign goods to reach a breakthrough next week in world trade talks, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said on Wednesday.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana (Reuters) - Two men often mentioned as possible running mates to U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama joined him on the campaign trail in Indiana on Wednesday, further stoking speculation about the Democrat's closely guarded search for a No. 2.

BEIJING (Reuters) - An international prosecutor could "pour oil on fire" by seeking to arrest Sudan's president, China's top official newspaper said, amplifying Beijing's opposition to pursuing charges of genocide in Darfur.

ASMARA (Reuters) - You can hear the ping of metal striking metal and the gentle buzz of wood being cut before you even enter Medebr market in the Eritrean capital.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate, fending off opposition from some conservative Republicans, voted on Wednesday to spend $48 billion to fight AIDS worldwide over the next five years.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Democrats and the Bush administration scrambled on Wednesday to shore up support for a major housing market rescue bill, as Republican backing for it faltered on doubts about attaching a plan to bolster Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday his prickly relations with Washington would not improve even if Democrat candidate Barack Obama wins the U.S. presidential election in November.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers defied a White House veto threat on Wednesday and voted to bar CIA contractors from interrogating suspected terrorists, in the latest clash over detainee treatment in the U.S.-declared war on terrorism.

L'HOSPITALET DE LLOBREGAT, Spain (Reuters) - When immigrants come to L'Hospitalet on the grimy outskirts of Barcelona, they'd better not play loud music after 10 at night or spit on the street.

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia misused the symbol of the Red Cross in this month's military rescue of politician Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other rebel-held hostages, it said on Wednesday, admitting a possible violation of the rules of war.