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SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Heavy rains and flooding that killed five people and displaced thousands in south-central Chile have collapsed road and rail bridges, closed the world's largest underground copper mine and left many in the capital without drinking water, the government said on Friday.

TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgia's main opposition coalition vowed on Friday to boycott the nation's new parliament and hold street protests against an election it says was rigged to hand victory to President Mikheil Saakashvili's party.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. negotiator with North Korea visits China and Russia next week to brief their officials on multilateral efforts to get North Korea to give up its atomic programs, the U.S. State Department said on Friday.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban leader Fidel Castro blasted Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Friday for his criticism of the Cuban government this week, saying McCain had shown why he finished near the bottom of his class at West Point.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - General Michel Suleiman, set to be elected Lebanon's president on Sunday, has kept the army unified through three years of turmoil that have taken the country to the brink of a new civil war.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Tamil Tiger rebels said a Sri Lankan military roadside bomb killed 17 civilians on Friday in an ambush in rebel-held territory in the far north.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Up to 60 heavily armed men on horseback ambushed a patrol of peacekeepers in Darfur, in a new attack on international forces in Sudan's strife-torn west, the United Nations said on Friday.

PARIS (Reuters) - French fishermen battling for cheaper fuel ignored calls by the government to lift their blockades of ports and fuel depots on Friday and found new ways to disrupt traffic on land and at sea.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Singapore owns a rocky outcrop near a key shipping lane, the U.N.'s highest court ruled on Friday, settling a protracted territorial dispute between the south-east Asian state and its neighbor Malaysia.

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli troops killed five Palestinian militants on Friday during raids into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, medical workers and a militant group said.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was questioned by police for an hour on Friday, the second time this month that investigators have quizzed him over allegations he took bribes from an American businessman.

BEIJING (Reuters) - New Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrives in Beijing on Friday, offering energy deals and military cooperation but seeking pledges of solidarity with resurgent China at a time when ties with the West are strained.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The lead U.S. and North Korean nuclear negotiators are expected to meet in Beijing next week, a diplomatic source said on Thursday, in a sign Pyongyang may be closer to making a declaration of its atomic programs.

FOUNTAIN HILLS, Arizona (Reuters) - Republican John McCain was deemed by his doctors on Friday to be in sufficient good health to serve as president even as they reported a long history of skin cancer, colon polyps, kidney stones and dizziness.

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Heavy rains and flooding have killed five people and forced about 13,000 from their homes in south-central Chile, some evacuated after rivers swelled and burst their banks, the government said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a $601.4 billion defense spending bill despite a veto threat by the White House.

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar (Reuters) - Myanmar's junta agreed on Friday to admit foreign aid workers of all nationalities to the delta area worst hit by Cyclone Nargis, in what the U.N. called a breakthrough for aiding survivors.

PALO ALTO, California (Reuters) - The United States will aggressively impose more sanctions on Iran as long as it refuses to give up sensitive nuclear work and uses the world's financial system for "terrorism," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday.

PALO ALTO, California (Reuters) - The United States will aggressively impose more sanctions on Iran as long as it refuses to give up sensitive nuclear work and uses the world's financial system for "terrorism," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday.

STOCKTON, California (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Thursday rejected the endorsement of a Texas preacher after the pastor was discovered to have made "crazy" comments about Adolf Hitler and Jews.