World News

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's state radio is reporting that the country will respond Friday to an international proposal on its nuclear program.

JERUSALEM - Israel says it is keeping Gaza's border crossings closed in retaliation for a rocket attack.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran would consider any military action against its nuclear facilities as the beginning of a war, the country's top Revolutionary Guards commander said in remarks published Friday.

LONDON (AFP) - European equities fell on Friday as investors pocketed gains won a day earlier, mulled more bad news for the banking sector and began looking to next week in the absence of Wall Street trading, dealers said.

MINSK (AFP) - A bomb packed with nuts and bolts injured up to 50 young revellers at a huge outdoor concert in the Belarussian capital Minsk attended by President Alexander Lukashenko, officials said Friday.

SILVERSTONE, England (AFP) - Formula One chiefs announced on Friday that the British Grand Prix will move from Silverstone to Donington Park from 2010 onwards in a 10-year deal.

BOGOTA, Colombia - Hugo Chavez, once a key mediator in securing hostage releases from Colombian rebels, could do little more than phone congratulations to President Alvaro Uribe after this week's bold rescue.

BOGOTA, Colombia - The plan was nothing if not audacious: A turncoat persuades rebels to bring together their most prized hostages and march them 90 miles through Colombia's wilderness. A month later, disguised commandos primed with acting lessons land in a helicopter and trick the rebels into handing them over.

MEXICO CITY - Tropical Storm Douglas weakened to a depression off Mexico's coast on Thursday and was forecast to die at sea.

HARARE (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe said on Friday that although he accepted the need for negotiations to end Zimbabwe's crisis, the opposition must drop their claim to power and accept that he was the country's leader.

HARARE (AFP) - Robert Mugabe said Friday he is only open to negotiations on an end to Zimbabwe's political crisis if he is accepted as the country's president following his widely condemned one-man election.

LAGOS (AFP) - Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua believes a peace summit slated for this month on the Niger Delta would end the crisis in the restive oil-rich region, his office said Friday.

KATHMANDU (AFP) - A study on tigers in one of Nepal's national parks suggests that the population has been halved by poachers in just a few years, a senior wildlife official said Friday.

NEW DELHI (AFP) - India's coalition government was undergoing a major shake-up Friday with the dominant Congress party pushing on with a controversial nuclear deal with the US and ditching left-wing allies.

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Hundreds of Islamists gathered outside Islamabad's Red Mosque on Friday and chanted slogans against President Pervez Musharraf to mark the anniversary of the bloody storming of the building.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - High commodity prices will help Canada avoid a recession this year but a U.S. slump will pull down economic growth to 1.4 percent, about half last year's rate and below official forecasts, Royal Bank of Canada said on Thursday.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's U.S. embassy apologized on Thursday for a party invitation that featured a prominent figure in Canadian history brandishing a large plate of French fries covered in cheese curds and gravy.

BERLIN (Reuters) - None of the G8 countries have come close to fulfilling their pledges to fight climate change with the United States, Canada and Russia lagging especially far behind, a study published on Thursday found.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia is one of the least religious nations in the western world, research showed Friday, as the country prepares to host Pope Benedict XVI and Catholic World Youth Day celebrations this month.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Morning rush-hour traffic slowed to a crawl in most New Zealand cities Friday as truckers snarled highways and streets with thousands of vehicles to protest higher road taxes.

ADELAIDE, Australia - Alexander Downer announced Thursday he is quitting Australian politics following a career as the country's longest-serving foreign minister and one of its highest-profile leaders of the past decade.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Lost scenes from the sci-fi classic "Metropolis," recently discovered in the archives of a Buenos Aires museum, were shown to journalists for the first time in decades on Thursday.

SAPPORO, Japan - Between surging oil prices, food inflation and a credit crunch that's depressed global growth, leaders from the Group of Eight economic powers face the gravest combination of economic woes in at least a decade when they gather next week.

BOGOTA, Colombia - The plan was nothing if not audacious: A turncoat persuades rebels to bring together their most prized hostages and march them 90 miles through Colombia's wilderness. A month later, disguised commandos primed with acting lessons land in a helicopter and trick the rebels into handing them over.