VoteKansas.org

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Georgia said on Friday it had stopped spy plane flights over breakaway Abkhazia as Western nations prepared a diplomatic drive to calm tensions between Tbilisi and Moscow that have raised fears of war.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday imposed sanctions on Kurdish rebels and an Italian organized crime group in an attempt to cut off their access to the U.S. financial system and their funding.

NAPLES (Reuters) - Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said on Friday he would rely on the Italian army to face down protests over his plans to end a trash crisis in the southern city of Naples.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S.-backed paramilitary force in Pakistan's lawless border area may be aiding Taliban fighters, according to American officials who say the support may cause Congress to freeze some security funds for Islamabad.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African ruling party leader Jacob Zuma on Friday comforted the children of African migrants displaced in a wave of xenophobic attacks, pledging to help them and their families rebuild their lives.

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - A Salvadoran passenger plane skidded off a rain-soaked runway on landing at Tegucigalpa airport in Honduras on Friday, killing five people and injuring 38 as it veered onto a road and smashed into cars and a building.

JEDDAH (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Friday he has some problems with the housing rescue plan under consideration in the U.S. Senate, but will work to craft a bill that President George W. Bush can sign.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Leaders of Israel's governing Kadima party plan to meet in as little as a week to decide on an internal ballot that could replace Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, senior Kadima members said on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush offered renewed backing on Friday for Pakistan during a telephone call he made to its president, Pervez Musharraf, who was trying to quash rumors that he plans to leave office.

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may have attended just four rock concerts in her life, but the rock band Kiss apparently thinks she is pretty cool.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan has formally requested a U.N investigation into the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, her widower said on Friday.

DUBLIN (Reuters) - More than 100 nations formally agreed on Friday to ban the use of cluster bombs but debate continued on loopholes that could benefit powers such as the United States, which has refused to take part in talks on a ban.

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese man who was mystified when food kept disappearing from his kitchen, set up a hidden camera and found an unknown woman living secretly in his closet, Japanese media said on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States pressed Israel on Friday to let seven Gaza Strip Palestinians travel to the United States to study on coveted U.S. government Fulbright fellowships and Israel said it was working on the issue.

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli troops used gunfire and teargas on Friday to keep more than 3,000 Hamas supporters from approaching one of the Gaza Strip's main border crossings with Israel, wounding at least six Palestinians, witnesses said.

After five months of voting, 16 months of campaigning and more surprises, reversals and comebacks than any U.S. political race deserves, the grueling duel for the Democratic presidential nomination could be entering its final days.

BUJUMBURA (Reuters) - The exiled leader of Burundi's last rebel group returned to the capital on Friday to begin implementing a stalled deal seen as the final obstacle to peace in the tiny central African country.

LONDON (Reuters) - Spanish fishermen handed out free fish while European truckers and seamen from Portugal to Bulgaria blocked roads and ports on Friday, demanding government action to curb rising fuel prices.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan security forces along with U.S.-led coalition forces regained control of a district centre in the province of Ghazni after the Taliban had captured it overnight, provincial governor, Shir Khosti told Reuters.

JAIPUR, India (Reuters) - At least three people were killed on Friday in clashes between police and an ethnic Indian group demanding job and college quotas, taking the death toll to 42 in a week of protests.