BEIRUT, Lebanon -- An earthquake registering 4.0 on the Richter scale rumbled in southern Lebanon Friday, officials said but no casualties were reported. A seismology center in Behaness indicated the quake affected a region between Tyre and Srifa, reported KUNA, the Kuwaiti news agency. Twenty-five tremors struck the regions since Thursday, damaging several buildings, officials said. Copyright © 2008, by United Press International. All Rights Reserved. [full story]

ATLANTA -- Sickness blamed on salmonella-tainted tomatoes jumped to 228 cases Friday with six new states added, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The CDC found 61 new cases of Salmonella Saintpaul infection in Florida, Georgia, Missouri, New York, Tennessee and Vermont. That brings to 23 the number of states in which infections have been confirmed since mid-April, CNN reported.Some restaurants and grocery stores removed tomatoes from their inventories after reports of the ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- U.S. polls indicate a tight race between Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama but international surveys indicate Obama is heavily favored. In 21of 24 nations polled by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, respondents said Obama, D-Ill., and the presumptive Democratic nominee, would more likely "do the right thing regarding world affairs" than his presumptive GOP challenger John McCain, R-Ariz., USA Today reported Friday."Obama obviously has an appeal that has crossed the waters," ... [full story]

TEHRAN -- The European Union's foreign policy leader traveled to Iran Friday to present a proposal of incentives in an effort to resolve Iran's nuclear aspirations. The European Union, in a statement, said Javier Solana would offer the package in its latest attempt to get Iran to back off its uranium enrichment program, which the United States and other Western nations say is being used to develop nuclear weapons capabilities.Solana will meet Iranian Foreign Minister ... [full story]

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Preliminary returns Friday indicated that Ireland voted against ratifying a new governing treaty for the European Union, election officials said. While a final declaration wasn't expected until late Friday, returns indicated 52 percent of Irish voters cast votes against the treaty and 48 percent voted in favor of it, The Times of London reported.The treaty, officially called the Lisbon Treaty, needs the approval of all 27 EU members to take effect. Of ... [full story]

KISII, Kenya -- The deaths of 15 people killed in a witch hunt in western Kenya may be the result of personal vendettas and hatred, some villagers say. Fifteen people, the majority of whom were elderly females, were killed in late May in a witch hunt outside of Kisii, Kenya, CNN reported Friday.At least 100 people used knives and machetes during a raid at the village of Kegogi, villagers said."They started banging on the doors, ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- Healthcare experts say the simplicity of defrauding the U.S. Medicare program points to the need for more resources devoted to prevent fraud. One issue is that Medicare doesn't review the majority of the bills it pays to companies with federally issued supplier numbers, The Washington Post said Friday.Checks are in place more to detect overbilling and unconventional medical treatment than fraud, officials said.Law enforcement officials estimate healthcare fraud costs taxpayers more than $60 ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- Pork-barrel funding, curbed by the U.S. Congress a year ago, is making a stout comeback with billions of dollars aimed at home districts, a watchdog group says. Earmark spending in the U.S. House of Representatives' defense authorization bill soared 29 percent, from $7.7 billion last year to $9.9 billion, reports Taxpayers for Common Sense, a non-partisan Washington watchdog group.The Senate bill, which hasn't been approved, includes an increased number of earmarks, although for ... [full story]

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Canadians were a day away Friday from being "tax-free" for 2008, almost two months behind U.S. citizens, The Fraser Institute said. The independent research organization based in Vancouver, British Columbia, said after Saturday, working Canadian citizens had fulfilled their various tax burdens for the year."Canadians spend almost half the year working to pay all the various taxes levied on them by federal, provincial and local governments," said Niels Veldhuis, the Fraser ... [full story]

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe warned of possible war Friday if his opponents try to take power in the June 27 presidential election runoff. Mugabe told his countrymen that liberation war veterans were preparing to take up arms if the Movement for Democratic Change wins the presidential runoff, the Times of London reported. The state-owned Herald newspaper said Mugabe told the veterans that he did not want to go back to war but insisted ... [full story]