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VIENNA (Reuters) - The head of Iran's atomic energy organization said on Thursday he was hopeful negotiations could start based on proposals made by Iran and the six powers at recent talks in Geneva.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's Defense Ministry has revived a plan it had shelved under U.S. pressure to build a new Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, government officials said on Thursday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has decided to run for election to the local council of a desolate Arctic region just weeks after resigning as governor.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan has invited international experts to inspect its legal system to see whether it is capable of holding trials for war crimes committed in Darfur, the justice minister said on Thursday.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Senior negotiators from Zimbabwe's main opposition MDC and the ruling ZANU-PF party began talks on Thursday and a report indicated they were close to reaching a deal on forming a unity government.

BEIJING (Reuters) - At least three powerful aftershocks hit southwest China's quake area on Thursday, killing one elderly person and injuring more than a dozen, the official Xinhua news agency said.

SLEMAN, Indonesia (Reuters) - The pilot of a Garuda Indonesia aircraft that crashed at Yogyakarta airport last year killing 21 people was charged on Thursday with negligence and deliberately causing an accident.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama made a surprise pre-dawn visit to Jerusalem's Western Wall on Thursday, at the end of a trip aimed at showing his strong support for Israel.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev plans to replace dozens of regional governors over the next few years in an attempt to increase his influence within officialdom, the Vedomosti newspaper reported on Thursday.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asia-Pacific nations on Thursday called for greater coordination in dealing with natural disasters, including deploying military resources, in a region prone to earthquakes, cyclones and tsunamis.

GLASGOW (Reuters) - Voters in Scotland went to the polls on Thursday for a parliamentary by-election that Gordon Brown's party is expected to win, but which could dramatically dent the prime minister's standing if it is lost.

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan soldiers killed "dozens" of militants, including foreigners, in a clash on a highway in southern Zabul province on Thursday, the defence ministry said.

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.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Ranks of Chinese paramilitary police swore to prevent terrorist attacks or "political incidents" disrupting the Beijing Olympics in a show of force at the Games' main stadium, a state newspaper reported on Thursday.

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.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Three Hong Kong children have jailed for more than three years for the armed hold-up of a jewelry shop, a newspaper said on Thursday, with the court saying the stiff sentence was in the public interest.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Marathon trade talks limped into another day on Friday but with little progress so far on the tortuous negotiations ministers said it would soon be time to decide whether a deal was at all possible.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Wednesday said Cuba does not have to explain or "ask forgiveness" about a report out of Russia this week that Russia might use its Cold War ally Cuba as a refueling base for nuclear-capable bombers.

HACHINOHE, Japan (Reuters) - A strong earthquake jolted northern Japan early on Thursday, injuring more than 100 people, trapping hundreds in halted trains and affecting production at some high-tech factories.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council will hold a special meeting on a border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand that has sparked fears of a military clash, France and Vietnam said on Wednesday.