World News

BEIJING (Reuters) - A strain of hand, foot and mouth disease has killed four more children in China, bringing the death toll in recent weeks to 34, state media said on Friday, as it praised a doctor who alerted authorities to the epidemic.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A rocket hit the BBC office in Baghdad on Friday but no one was wounded in the attack, the British broadcaster said.

By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Now that Democrat Hillary Clinton is fading, Republican John McCain's U.S. presidential campaign is girding for a tough election battle against Barack Obama and McCain aides believe he has weaknesses to exploit.

By Tom Perry
BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah took control of the Muslim half of Beirut on Friday, tightening its grip on the city in a major blow to the U.S.-backed government.

By Stephen Brown
ROME (Reuters) - An Italian minister from an anti-immigrant party who wore a T-shirt that offended Muslims in 2006 said on Friday the gesture was misunderstood and his appointment should not damage relations with Libya.

By Tanja Daube
ST POELTEN, Austria (Reuters) - An Austrian court on Friday ordered Josef Fritzl, who kept his daughter in a cellar for 24 years and had seven children with her, to be kept in custody for a further month, a court spokesman said.

By Michael Stott
MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Dmitry Medvedev warned on Friday against "irresponsible ambitions" that lead to war as tanks and missile launchers rumbled over Red Square in a show of Russian fire-power not seen since the fall of the Soviet Union.

By Tyra Dempster
BEIJING (Reuters) - For Yao Wenli, Beijing Mingyuan School's dank classrooms are an improvement on the four previous schools she has been to since her parents left their home-town to look for better work.

By Mark Heinrich
GENEVA (Reuters) - The five major nuclear-armed powers said on Friday the Non-Proliferation Treaty was under threat and cited Iran's uranium enrichment campaign in a rare joint call for action to shore up the NPT.

By Tom Perry
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah took control of large areas of Beirut on Friday, tightening its grip on the city in a major blow to the U.S.-backed government after three days of intense fighting.

By Avida Landau and Adam Entous
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert defied a barrage of calls to resign on Friday after he admitted taking cash from an American businessman at the centre of a police inquiry into allegations of bribery.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A man seized by Iraqi forces in the northern city of Mosul is not Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, a senior U.S. military official said on Friday.

By Avida Landau
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faced a barrage of calls to resign on Friday after he admitted taking cash from an American businessman at the centre of a police investigation into suspected bribery.

By Waleed Ibrahim
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi forces have detained a man suspected of being the head of al Qaeda in Iraq after a captured associate led them to him sleeping in a house in the northern city of Mosul, several Iraqi officials said on Friday.

By Avida Landau
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Ehud Olmert's opponents and much of Israel's press called on the prime minister to resign on Friday after he admitted taking cash from an American businessman for close to a decade.

By Michael Stott
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Warplanes screamed over Red Square and missile launchers rumbled past ranks of soldiers on Friday when Russia celebrated victory over Nazi Germany with a show of military might not seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

By Waleed Ibrahim
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi security forces have detained a man suspected of being the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq after a captured associate led them to him sleeping in a house in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi officials said on Friday.

By Tom Perry
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah gunmen took control of large areas of Beirut on Friday in a third day of fighting between the pro-Iranian group and fighters loyal to the U.S.-backed governing coalition.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Hong Kong jewellery tycoon was jailed on Friday for paying millions in illegal kickbacks to local travel agents to bring tourists to his showrooms, tax fraud and other offences.