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BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush flew in for China's Olympics party on Thursday fresh from criticizing its rights record -- but attention finally swung to sport with soccer powerhouses Brazil and Argentina off to winning starts.

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syrian authorities on Thursday freed dissident Aref Dalila, jailed seven years ago after calling for freedom of speech and assembly and abolishing monopolies in the single party country.

LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivian President Evo Morales is expected to survive a recall vote this weekend but a political crisis in South America's poorest country may intensify as right-wing opponents try to block his socialist reforms.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel issued on Thursday a tender for the construction of 447 housing units in settlements in the Jerusalem area, drawing fire from Palestinians who accused the Jewish state of sabotaging chances of peace.

NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Leaders of a military coup in Mauritania promised on Thursday to hold a free and transparent presidential election as soon as possible, but the United States suspended aid and demanded an immediate return to civilian rule.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - The world must solve crises in the Middle East and Somalia or they will spawn more of the extremism that led to bombings of U.S. embassies in east Africa a decade ago, Kenya's prime minister warned on Thursday.

MAE SOT, Thailand (Reuters) - U.S. First Lady Laura Bush tried to boost pressure on the Myanmar government to accept democratic reforms when she visited a large refugee camp in Thailand just a few miles from the border on Thursday.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - The United Nations on Thursday raised concerns Sudanese anti-terrorism courts which condemned 30 Darfur rebels to death did not meet international standards and urged the appeals courts to review the sentences.

HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) - A small group of Jewish settlers attacked a delegation of British diplomats during a visit to the West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday, the British Consulate said.

REGGIO CALABRIA, Italy (Reuters) - Italian police on Thursday arrested the head of a Calabrian mafia clan whose feud with rivals has killed about 20 people, including six Italians gunned down outside a pizzeria in Germany a year ago.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - One person was killed and another injured on Thursday by an explosion at a beach in Sochi, Russia's popular Black Sea resort which will host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, the Interfax news agency reported.

NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Leaders of a military coup in Mauritania promised on Thursday to hold a "free and transparent" presidential election as soon as possible, defying foreign calls to reinstate the country's first freely elected president.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Hundreds of volunteers from Russia and Abkhazia headed for Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia on Friday to join separatists fighting Tbilisi forces, Interfax news agency reported.

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe said on Thursday power-sharing talks with the opposition MDC were going well, but dismissed media reports about a draft agreement as nonsense.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Roadside bomb incidents involving U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan hit their highest level in at least four years between April and June, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A mortar shell attack which injured three people in Istanbul on Thursday had targeted an army headquarters, broadcaster NTV reported security sources as saying.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's ruling coalition will move to impeach President Pervez Musharraf on charges of plunging the country into a political and economic crisis, party leaders said on Thursday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Thursday that he had contacted the U.S. and Chinese presidents to discuss reviving the global trade talks, which collapsed last month.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A top U.N. nuclear watchdog official began talks in Iran on Thursday aimed at improving cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency over Tehran's nuclear program.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's leading opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim was charged with sodomy and granted bail by a court on Thursday, letting him campaign in a by-election on which he is staking his political future after a 10-year absence.