LARNACA, Cyprus International protesters who defied Israel's blockade of Gaza to aid Palestinians sailed into Cyprus' Larnaca port late Friday, pledging to make a return voyage.

SYDNEY, Australia An Indian doctor jailed in Australia last year in a bungled terrorism case has officially been cleared, Australian police said Friday.

TBILISI, Georgia Georgia severed diplomatic ties with Moscow on Friday to protest the presence of Russian troops on its territory. Russia said the move would only make things worse.

ATHENS, Greece A priceless gold wreath has been unearthed in an ancient city in northern Greece, buried with human bones in a large copper vase that workers initially took for a land mine.

HANOI, Vietnam Vietnamese authorities denied Friday that they had used force or stun guns to break up a demonstration by Catholics who are demanding the return of land the Communist government took more than four decades ago.

LONDON A British court on Friday gave Foreign Secretary David Miliband a week to justify his decision to suppress secret documents that lawyers for a Guantanamo detainee argue could prove their client was tortured in Morocco.

MAPLE RIDGE, British Columbia A pickup truck crashed through the front window of a busy sushi restaurant in Canada, killing two women and injuring six, police said Friday.

HARARE, Zimbabwe Power-sharing talks over a unity government resumed Friday as President Robert Mugabe's government made good on a promise to allow aid agencies to resume operations in economically shattered Zimbabwe.

MONTREAL, Quebec A provincial health official says that an unusually high number of people have fallen ill with salmonella food poisoning across Quebec.

CANBERRA, Australia An oxygen tank exploded and blew a car-sized hole in a Qantas jet last month, air safety officials said Friday, but investigators appear to be no closer to figuring out why.

REDZIKOWO, Poland Poland's prime minister sought to reassure worried residents near the site of a planned U.S. missile defense base on Friday, pledging that they and the country would be more secure, despite threats from an angry Russia.

HAVANA A Cuban punk rocker known for his raunchy lyrics criticizing Fidel Castro was convicted of public disorder Friday, but freed after a court dismissed a more serious "social dangerousness" charge that could have sent him to prison for four years.

Russia's invasion of Georgia presents the West with a difficult choice: Punish Moscow by kicking it out of clubs like the Group of Eight or pursue a strategy of placating it that could invite further bullying in places like Ukraine, the Baltic states or Moldova.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico The San Juan Star, Puerto Rico's Pulitzer Prize-winning English-language newspaper, closed Friday, the owner said, blaming the union for not agreeing to benefit cuts and layoffs to offset declining revenue.

KABUL, Afghanistan More than 24 militants were killed in two separate battles with U.S.-led coalition troops in Afghanistan, the coalition said Friday.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka Sri Lanka urged civilians living in Tamil Tiger rebel-held areas to flee to government-controlled territory as fighting escalated in the embattled north, officials said Friday.

BANGKOK, Thailand Thai anti-government protesters occupying the grounds of the prime minister's office forced several hundred policemen off the compound early Friday and promised more action in their bid to oust the leader.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Predictions that Pervez Musharraf will have to flee Pakistan to escape treason charges have died along with the coalition that drove him from the presidency.

BERLIN Europeans on Friday greeted Barack Obama's acceptance of the U.S. Democratic nomination as a strong performance that boosted his campaign and went beyond mere show to offer a clearer picture of what he might do as president.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan The favorite to be Pakistan's next president has moved into a guarded government compound over security fears, officials said Friday as a militant campaign against the government led to more violence in the country's volatile northwest.