World - Thursday

Italy's PM quits after losing vote

Romano Prodi resigned after losing a risky Senate confidence vote that forced him to end his 20-month-old gov't. President Giorgio Napolitano may call early elections or ask a politician to form a new gov't. Prodi's shaky gov't lurched toward collapse after a small Christian Democrat party yanked its support this week.

Kenyan foes meet face to face

Kenya's president and its main opposition leader met for the first time since the disputed Dec. 27 presidential vote that led to violence and hundreds dead. President Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga met at the president's office. Ex-U.N. Sec'y-General Kofi Annan, who brokered the talks, mediated.

GAZA STRIP: Egyptian border guards took steps to control crowds of Palestinians flooding into Gaza across a breached border for a 2nd day, but didn't try to halt the flow.

IRAQ: A suicide bomber in a police uniform killed a top police official in the northern city of Mosul as the officer toured the site of an explosion that killed 36 people and wounded 169 a day earlier.

BRAZIL: The government will send extra federal police and environmental agents to 36 cities where illegal deforestation in the Amazon has surged.