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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress began a five-week recess on Friday, leaving unresolved how to ease the surge in gasoline prices that is certain to be an issue until the November elections and beyond.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate confirmed a new American ambassador to South Korea on Friday, after a senator dropped his objections upon getting promises the Bush administration would urge North Korea to improve human rights.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Darfur rebels on Friday criticized a U.N. Security Council resolution linking a U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force to African concerns at a move to indict Sudan's president for war crimes.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's president said on Friday the Islamic Republic would "stand against" its enemies with its "power", speaking just before a deadline set by Western officials in a dispute over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - A 40-year-old man was charged on Friday with second degree murder after a fellow passenger was stabbed to death aboard a Greyhound bus on the Canadian Prairies and then beheaded.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Myanmar's military junta has invited a U.N. investigator to make his first visit next week so he can assess the human rights situation in the Southeast Asian country, the United Nations said on Friday.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - India said on Friday that peace talks with Pakistan were at the lowest point in their four-year history after a spate of bombings in Indian cities and at the country's embassy in Kabul.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on Friday the U.N. nuclear watchdog's approval of an inspection plan for India's civilian atomic power plants would advance its efforts to have Congress consider a U.S.-India nuclear accord this year.

CARTAGENA, Colombia (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez failed to show up for a narcotics summit of Latin American leaders on Friday and his government said he did not attend because of security concerns.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Defense approved up to $10.7 billion in arms sales for Iraq over the past week, including a $2.16 billion sale of M1A1 Abrams tanks built by General Dynamics Corp.

PRENDEN, Germany (Reuters) - Visitors flocked to the once top-secret bunker of Erich Honecker and other leaders of former East Germany as it opened to the public on Friday, almost 19 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran is heading toward a major breakthrough in its nuclear program, an Israeli official said on Friday, as the White House warned Iran could face new sanctions if it ignores an international freeze offer.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on Friday the U.N. nuclear watchdog's approval of an inspection plan for India's civilian atomic power plants would advance its efforts to have Congress consider a U.S.-India nuclear accord this year.

LA PAZ (Reuters) - A recall vote in Bolivia that could force out leftist President Evo Morales and a group of opposition governors will go ahead on August 10 despite a possible change in voting rules, the vice president said on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers unveiled legislation on Friday aimed at forging a compromise between Democrats and Republicans deadlocked in the Senate over energy issues.

KABUL (Reuters) - Two improvised explosive devices (IED) killed five soldiers from NATO-led forces and one civilian in Afghanistan on Friday, the NATO force said in a statement, and a young suicide bomber killed three civilians in the south.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States imprisoned and interrogated one or more terrorism suspects at the British Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia in 2002 and possibly 2003, a former senior U.S. official has told Time magazine.

PANAMA CITY, Florida (Reuters) - Republican John McCain's presidential team mocked Democrat Barack Obama on Friday as an overconfident, Messiah-like candidate with a tendency toward exaggeration in a Web ad that closed out a week of attacks.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon expects to issue a draft request for proposals in the transatlantic battle to build new aerial tankers for the U.S. Air Force "sooner rather than later," spokesman Bryan Whitman said on Friday.

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (Reuters) - The White House said on Friday it was not happy with data showing the U.S. unemployment rate has risen to 5.7 percent, but it described the report as mixed because wages increased by 3.4 percent over the past year.