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MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - Former funnyman Al Franken hopes to convince Minnesotans that he can represent them in the buttoned-down halls of the U.S. Senate. So for now, jokes are off the record.

CHENGDU, China (Reuters) - Chinese troops are carving a third drainage channel into the unstable dam holding back a big "quake lake", as water levels rise and aftershocks send more debris tumbling into the water, state media reported on Monday.

GAZA (Reuters) - The leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip played down on Monday the chances of quick reconciliation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.

VALMI, Greece (Reuters) - Villagers in southern Greece sifted through the rubble of homes and businesses for belongings on Monday, a day after an earthquake killed two people and injured scores of others.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader told visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday that the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq was the biggest obstacle to its development as a united country.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A systematic government campaign of murder and brutality has eliminated any chance of a fair presidential election in Zimbabwe, an international rights group said on Monday.

DJIBOUTI (Reuters) - A U.N.-led peace initiative for Somalia appears to have failed, with government and opposition delegations refusing to meet face-to-face in Djibouti to try to end 18 years of conflict.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean truckers voted on Monday to strike over high oil prices, piling more pressure on the export-dependent country's new president whose policies have sparked mass street protests.

DONETSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Rescuers on Monday brought to the surface alive two miners missing after a gas explosion at a Ukrainian colliery, and tried to push down a ventilation shaft to find 34 of their missing comrades.

TOKYO (Reuters) - A man arrested for killing seven people in a knife rampage on a crowded Tokyo shopping street posted dozens of warning messages on the Internet in the hours leading up to the attack, Japanese media reported on Monday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Three British paratroopers were killed in the southern Afghan province of Helmand on Sunday in a suicide bomb attack, bringing total British military deaths in Afghanistan since 2001 to 100.

JUYUAN, China (Reuters) - Chinese officials have sent condolences and payments to parents of children killed in a school that crumpled in the country's huge earthquake, seeking to defuse outrage over shoddy buildings and claimed corruption.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Suspected militants killed four policeman in an ambush near Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar on Monday, a police official said.

CHENJIABA, China (Reuters) - Close to one month after China's devastating earthquake killed Mu Jianfeng's wife, he finally found time to visit her grave and the battered home where their baby survived in his wife's last embrace.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged the new leader of Colombia's FARC rebels on Sunday to unconditionally release all prisoners from jungle camps, in an effort to galvanize international efforts to free high-profile hostages.

MANILA (Reuters) - A group of men, widely thought to be an army "black squad", abducted Edita Burgos's son while he ate lunch in a Manila shopping mall last year.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged the new leader of Colombia's FARC rebels on Sunday to release all prisoners held in jungle camps, in an effort to galvanize international efforts to free high-profile hostages.

LONDON (Reuters) - Three British paratroopers were killed in the southern Afghan province of Helmand on Sunday in a suicide bomb attack, bringing total British military deaths in Afghanistan since 2001 to 100.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he would scrap new rules that oblige citizens to spy on each other, backing down after an outcry from the opposition, rights groups and the Roman Catholic Church.

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Two bombs exploded on Sunday at a railway station east of Algiers, killing 12 people including a French engineer, diplomats and security sources said.