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BEIJING (Reuters) - Blind Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng obtained a passport at Beijing airport on Saturday after his release from hospital and will soon board a flight to the United States, a friend said, a move that would signal the end of a diplomatic crisis between the two countries. Chen told Jiang Tianyong, a prominent rights lawyer, by telephone that he and his family had been given their passports and were waiting to board their flight. "I just spoke to him and he said he was about to board the flight very soon," Jiang said. ...

ROME (Reuters) - A bomb exploded in front of a school in southern Italy on Saturday, killing a 16 year-old girl and wounding at least six others, two seriously, authorities said on Saturday. The explosion, near the entrance of a girls' school named after the wife of murdered anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, occurred as pupils were preparing to enter the school at the start of the school day, which in Italy includes Saturdays. ...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A car bomb blew up in the eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zor on Saturday, state television and an opposition group said, without giving details on casualties. A bulletin on Syrian state television said there were reports of casualties but did not elaborate. An opposition group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the blast was near military intelligence offices and was followed by heavy gunfire. The group said the bomb went off on a street where a military hospital and air force intelligence offices are also located. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be given the rare honour of addressing both houses of Britain's parliament when she makes her first trip outside Myanmar in 24 years next month, British officials said on Saturday. The Nobel peace laureate has accepted Prime Minister David Cameron's invitation to visit Britain and will spend a week there from June 18, officials accompanying Cameron at a summit of the Group of Eight leading economies in the United States told reporters. ...

(Reuters) - The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has opened an investigation into possible wrongdoing at JPMorgan Chase & Co in connection with the bank's multi-billion-dollar trading loss, a source familiar with the probe told Reuters. The agency will soon disclose the existence of the investigation, the source said on Friday. Earlier on Friday, the New York Times reported that the CFTC had opened an enforcement case, quoting people briefed on the matter. The CFTC would join the FBI and the U.S. ...

SINDLEFINGEN, Germany (Reuters) - A key regional branch of Germany's IG Metall union reached a deal with employers for a 4.3 percent wage increase over 12 months to April 30, 2013 after an all-night negotiating session ended early on Saturday, officials said at a news conference. The deal reached just before dawn will set the benchmark for 3.6 million engineering workers nationwide, Europe's largest industrial union. Officials from the two sides confirmed the breakthrough agreement at a news conference after Reuters had earlier quoted sources leaking the broad outlines of the deal. ...

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ended a week-long silence on Friday to say he was resting, following a diet and trying to tame his workaholic ways as he recovers from cancer treatment. The usually garrulous and attention-seeking Chavez's disappearances from public view have become longer and more frequent this year. That has fuelled speculation his condition has worsened and may complicate a re-election bid in October. Allies in the ruling Socialist Party say the 57-year-old leader remains on top of government affairs and is not mulling a succession. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron and new French President Francois Hollande clashed on Friday over the need for a financial transactions tax to fund growth but played down other differences over how to respond to the euro zone debt crisis. Both leaders said after a first 35-minute meeting at the British ambassador's residence in Washington that they backed measures to cut deficits and spur growth in Europe, glossing over differences between Hollande's pro-growth stance and Cameron's emphasis on reducing debt. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron called on euro zone countries on Friday to take decisive action to stem a debt crisis and said Greeks must decide if they want to stay in the euro. He also said that he maintained his opposition to a financial transactions tax, backed by new French President Francois Hollande as a way to raise revenues. "We need decisive action from euro zone countries in terms of strengthening euro zone banks, in terms of a strong euro zone firewall and decisive action over Greece. That has to be done," he said, speaking in Washington before a G8 summit. ...

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Late last year, Iran issued a series of not-so veiled threats to the West, suggesting it could use its "oil weapon" to show displeasure over toughening sanctions by halting exports or disrupting the Strait of Hormuz. This weekend, the Group of Eight nations may offer a timely retort: We've got an oil weapon of our own, and we're not afraid to use it. After months of intense but quiet diplomacy with key allies, U.S. President Barack Obama may secure the support of the G8 to essentially pre-authorize a release of strategic reserves later this summer, just as U.S. ...

David Cameron has said his first face-to-face meeting with the French President was "very good", as world leaders start arriving at the G8 summit in the US.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Thousands of people protested loudly but peacefully under the watchful eye of police at a downtown Chicago plaza on Friday, chanting mostly about economic issues that have little to do with the summit of the NATO military alliance this weekend. Police estimated about 2,500 people took part in the largest protest so far in a week of demonstrations before President Barack Obama and representatives from some 60 countries arrive for the two-day summit to discuss the war in Afghanistan and other international security issues. ...

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain was forced to revise its 2011 budget deficit upwards on Friday, after three of the country's regions restated their own figures, exposing the struggle the autonomous communities have had curbing spending even ahead of deeper cuts this year. Spain said its 2011 public deficit now came in at 8.9 percent of gross domestic product, up from the 8.5 percent initially stated. The country had already widely overshot its deficit target of 6 percent for last year. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Just days before this weekend's NATO summit, the United States remains short of its goal of raising $1.3 billion (821.9 million pounds) in security funds from its partners in Afghanistan, after a money-raising blitz failed to garner immediate contributions from allies facing fiscal and political pressures. Who will pay for Afghanistan's future security will be central when President Barack Obama hosts leaders from NATO and other nations in his hometown of Chicago for the two-day summit starting on Sunday that will outline the Western path out of the long war. ...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Damascus has sent a letter to the United Nations accusing some Lebanese areas of helping al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood to take root along the Syrian border, adding to its criticism of Turkey and Libya for allegedly providing arms to Syrian rebels. "Some Lebanese areas next to the Syrian border are incubating terrorist elements from al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood, who are messing with the security of Syrian citizens and work on undermining the United Nations Special Envoy's plan," Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari wrote. The letter, which was sent to ...

BELFAST (Reuters) - Three Irish nationalists were charged in Northern Ireland on Friday for involvement in "terrorist acts" including conspiracy to murder and cause explosions, police said following a high-profile investigation. The men were arrested in security operations in the town of Lurgan near Belfast on Monday and according to security sources are suspected of being "high-profile" members of dissident group the Real IRA. The group is one of several opposed to a 1998 peace deal that have waged a campaign of bombings and shootings in recent years aimed mainly at security forces. ...

VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear chief will fly to Tehran on Sunday in an apparent bid to secure a deal enabling his inspectors to probe suspicions of atomic bomb research, a few days before Iran and world powers meet in Baghdad for broader talks on their dispute. News of the rare visit came as Western diplomats said Iran and the U.N. watchdog were making headway towards a framework agreement on how to address concerns Tehran may be seeking to develop the capability to assemble nuclear weapons. ...

ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - Yemeni troops killed 10 suspected Islamist militants on the outskirts of the city of Jaar, an army official and residents said on Friday, in a new U.S.-backed offensive meant to reassert control in the south of the country. Residents and a military official said fighting erupted overnight between insurgents and the Yemeni army backed by tribesmen on the northern outskirts of the city, which is held by al Qaeda linked militants. The clashes continued until Friday morning, killing ten militants, they said. ...

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan will allow foreign exchange bureaux and banks to trade dollars at a level close to the black market rate, effectively devaluing the pound, a senior banking official said on Friday. Sudan's economy has been battered since the country lost three-quarters of its oil production to South Sudan when the latter became independent in July. Even though the pipelines are in Sudan, the two have been unable to agree on how much the South should pay to transport its oil. ...

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's conservatives, the country's biggest party which backs its international bailout, rejected on Friday a suggestion by German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Greece hold a referendum on its euro zone membership. "The Greek people don't need a referendum to prove they're pro-euro," said Antonis Samaras, the leader of the conservative New Democracy party, in a statement. Greece's government spokesman said earlier on Friday that Merkel raised the referendum idea in a telephone conversation with Greece's President Karolos Papoulias. ...