TOKYO (Reuters) - A strong earthquake jolted northern Japan early on Thursday, injuring at least 76 people, trapping hundreds in halted trains and temporarily cutting off electric power to thousands of homes.

SDEROT, Israel (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama assured Israel and its U.S. Jewish supporters on Wednesday he was a friend who would not press for peace concessions that would compromise its security.

GENEVA (Reuters) - India welcomed on Wednesday an offer by the United States to limit its disputed farm subsidies as part of efforts to save a global trade deal but immediately came under pressure from Washington to make concessions itself.

EL NARANJO, Guatemala (Reuters) - Tighter border security and a broken-down rail line on Mexico's southern frontier are prompting thousands of U.S.-bound illegal immigrants to head north through thick jungles controlled by violent drug gangs.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The African Union said on Wednesday it was incapable of stabilizing the situation in Somalia and urged the United Nations take over peacekeeping operations in the lawless Horn of Africa country.

DAKAR (Reuters) - Senegal lifted the last constitutional obstacle to its courts trying former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre for human rights crimes, the Senegalese Minister of Justice said on Wednesday.

MINSK (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez vowed on Wednesday to work with Belarus, an ex-Soviet state long at odds with Washington, to defeat "hegemonistic" U.S. imperialism.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan said on Wednesday it would neither allow Islamist militants to plot attacks on its soil nor let foreign troops take military action on its territory.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government won a vote of confidence in parliament on Tuesday, ensuring the survival of the ruling coalition and a civilian nuclear deal with the United States.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, in a show of defiance, made his first visit to Darfur on Wednesday since the International Criminal Court prosecutor accused him of genocide and war crimes and sought his arrest.

KHAO PRA VIHARN, Thailand (Reuters) - Thais living along the border with Cambodia began evacuation and weapon drills on Wednesday, fearing clashes between troops of the two countries if talks to resolve a land dispute fail.

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Radovan Karadzic will conduct his own defence at the Hague tribunal and is convinced he will be cleared of charges of genocide, relatives and associates of the war crimes suspect said on Wednesday.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan's security forces made a rare arrest of a senior Afghan Taliban commander near the southwestern city of Quetta on Saturday, Pakistani security officials and coalition forces in Afghanistan told Reuters.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will not "retreat one iota" over its disputed nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Palestinian rammed a bulldozer into vehicles on a Jerusalem street on Tuesday before a visit by U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who condemned the attack and pledged to push for a peace deal.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has finished evacuating the last town to be submerged by the giant Three Gorges Dam, making way for water levels in the reservoir to rise to their final height of 175 meters above sea level, state media said.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - When Fabio Calderaro was a 23-year-old cadet at Brazil's military academy in 2000, he invested a couple of thousand dollars in the stock market.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday released details of a letter he received from Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah outlining his group's conditions for further prisoner deals with Israel.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Palestinian rammed a bulldozer into vehicles on a Jerusalem street on Tuesday before a visit by U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who condemned the attack and pledged to push for a peace deal.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Darfur rebels accused the African Union of bias on Tuesday after it said it would urge the U.N. Security Council to suspend any warrant to arrest Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes.