Reuters World News Highlights

SUKKUR, Pakistan – Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari  returned home yesterday from foreign visits to a chorus of  criticism over his government’s response to the country’s worst  flooding in 80 years.

– – – –

MOSCOW – Russia’s deadly summer heatwave could wipe up to  $14 billion off economic growth, economists said yesterday, as  wildfires raged on in several provinces and forecasters said  sweltering weather would not abate this week.
– – – –

RAMALLAH – U.S. peace envoy George Mitchell had “serious and  positive” talks yesterday with Palestinian President Mahmoud  Abbas, but there was no agreement on a move to direct  negotiations with Israel.

– – – –

BEIRUT – Iran has offered support to Lebanon’s army, a week  after a deadly cross-border clash between Lebanon and Israel  which prompted U.S. lawmakers to block funding to the Lebanese  military.

– – – –

WASHINGTON – The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday  approved, and President Barack Obama promptly signed into law,  an election-year bill providing $26 billion to struggling states  by closing tax loopholes for multinational companies and cutting  food aid to the poor.

– – – –

HOUSTON – An approaching storm in the Gulf of Mexico will  delay BP Plc’s work on a relief well, the final step in  permanently killing the source of the world’s worst offshore oil  spill, by two to three days, the top U.S. spill official said yesterday.

– – – –

KIGALI – Rwandan President Paul Kagame danced his way  towards a second seven-year term yesterday after preliminary  results gave the bush war veteran 93 percent of the vote in more  than a third of country’s districts.