HANOI (Reuters) - The sister of Vietnam's first confirmed bird flu patient of the year died with similar symptoms last week and the director of the hospital where she was treated said she probably also had avian flu.

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli warplanes bombed the Gaza Strip on Thursday and tanks pounded Palestinian guerrillas on the ground as U.S. backing for a proposed truce raised expectations of an end to the offensive.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The United States released another $99 million on Wednesday for equipment to fight warring Mexican drug cartels, bringing available funds for Mexico's anti-narcotics aid to almost $300 million.

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - A senior Iranian politician met Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus on Wednesday as the Palestinian Islamist group considered an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Agriculture Ministry said on Thursday that it had found no bird flu cases amongst poultry in Beijing or areas surrounding the city after a woman in the capital died of the H5N1 form of the virus.

MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) - Russia and Ukraine argue their case to Europe on Thursday in a gas price dispute that has choked off energy supplies to EU countries beset by bitter winter weather.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Canadian authorities filed polygamy charges on Wednesday against two leaders of a religious group that has openly practiced plural marriages in the province of British Columbia for years and has links to U.S. polygamist communities.

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli aircraft and tanks pounded the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and troops battled Palestinian guerrillas on the ground as U.S. backing for a proposed truce raised expectations of an end to the 12-day-old offensive.

ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana swore in opposition leader John Atta Mills as president on Wednesday in a democratic transfer of power that won plaudits from around the world for one of Africa's most attractive investment destinations.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Shi'ites in Iraq gathered in their thousands to observe an annual ritual of mourning on Wednesday, an event that has become a show of strength for a majority whose public worship was repressed by Saddam Hussein.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police detained about 40 people including three retired generals on Wednesday, the state news agency said, widening a probe into an alleged plot to topple EU aspirant Turkey's Islamist-rooted AK Party government.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - China, the biggest investor in Sudan, said on Wednesday a war crimes indictment against Sudan's president would have a "disastrous" impact on the Darfur conflict and called for the case to be postponed.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka hit the Tamil Tigers on Wednesday with a terrorist designation it lifted as part of ill-fated 2002 truce, as soldiers pressured the separatists' last stronghold on the Jaffna Peninsula.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Iraq remained the deadliest country for media workers in 2008, followed by India and Mexico, although the number of deaths was down sharply from the previous year, a study showed.

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - India said on Wednesday it would keep all options open to dismantle "terror outfits" after the Mumbai attacks and Pakistan finally confirmed the lone surviving gunman was Pakistani.

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Thousands of Cambodian survivors of the Khmer Rouge "Killing Fields" marked 30 years Wednesday since the fall of Pol Pot's ultra-Maoist regime, blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will push a rising tide of university graduates to find work in the countryside and small firms after Premier Wen Jiabao warned on Wednesday that they face a "grim" job market as a global slowdown seizes the economy.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's parliament discussed a series of bills on Wednesday the ruling party says are needed to steer the country through the global economic crisis, after opposition MPs ended a sit-in protest at the legislature.

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition forces killed 32 insurgents in fighting that erupted in a village in eastern Afghanistan following a raid on a hideout of bomb makers, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The chief of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency has said there will not be a war with India over November's militant attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai, Der Spiegel reported. Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shujaa Pasha told the German magazine in an interview terrorism, not India, was Pakistan's enemy, and he said he took orders from the civilian president.