TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese monetary authorities should take all possible measures to curb the yen's rise as current levels around 85 to the dollar are "abnormal," a senior trade ministry official said.

VIENNA (Reuters) - The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog has invited Israel to consider joining a global anti-nuclear arms pact and to place all its atomic facilities under his agency's inspections, an IAEA report said on Friday.

SURBAKTI (Reuters) - An Indonesian volcano that lay dormant for 400 years erupted yet again on Friday, shooting a mushroomed-shape plume of smoke 3 km (2 miles) into the air and prompting the second evacuation of terrified residents.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan's Taliban on Friday took responsibility for triple bombings at a Shi'ite Muslim procession in the city of Lahore that killed 33 people.

BHAKKAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A month ago, Pakistan's Indus river swelled and burst its banks, swallowing up fisherman Ghulam Shabir's village of 20 mud-brick homes and sending the 200 people living there fleeing for higher ground.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - At least 25 suspected drug gang members were killed in an army raid in rural northeastern Mexico on Thursday, the army said in a press release.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - One of three independent MPs needed by Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard to form a minority government hinted on Friday he could negotiate on Labor's mining profits tax he has previously opposed.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez defended his socialist government's security record on Thursday, rejecting pre-election claims by the opposition that crime had risen sharply during his 11 years in power.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to a series of direct talks on Thursday, seeking to forge the framework for a U.S.-backed peace deal within a year and end a conflict that has boiled for six decades.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to a series of direct talks on Thursday, seeking to forge the framework for a U.S.-backed peace deal within a year and end a conflict that has boiled for six decades.