WASHINGTON President Barack Obama reassured U.S. Jewish groups on Friday that the U.S.-Israel relationship is strong, despite differences over the nuclear deal with Iran, and called for more talks between the two governments on security cooperation.

"As soon as this particular debate is over, my hope is that the Israeli government will immediately want to rejoin conversations that we started long before about how we can continue to improve and enhance Israel's security in a very troubled neighbourhood," Obama said during a webcast focussed on the international nuclear agreement.

Obama said Washington and Israel have been in talks "for months" about getting security talks back on track, and those talks could include the next-generation missile defence and improved intelligence.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been a fierce critic of the nuclear deal, in which six world powers agreed to ease economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for Tehran curtailing its nuclear programme.

Netanyahu's government, and some U.S. pro-Israel groups, have lobbied fiercely against the nuclear agreement, potentially a core foreign policy achievement of Obama's presidency if successful.

Members of Congress have until Sept. 17 to vote on a "resolution of disapproval" of the nuclear agreement. If it passes, and survives Obama's veto, it could cripple the deal by eliminating Obama's ability to waive many U.S. sanctions.

U.S. Republicans are largely united against the agreement, and have allied themselves with Netanyahu's government against it. They angered the White House earlier this year by inviting the Israeli leader to address Congress without consulting the administration.

Obama said the U.S. commitment to Israel is "sacrosanct and it is non-partisan."

He added, "Everybody keep in mind that we're all pro-Israel ... We have to make sure that we don't impugn people's motives even as we have what is a very serious debate."

As Congress has considered the nuclear agreement, announced on July 14, its supporters have denounced opponents as "war hawks" and opponents have accused supporters of betraying Israel.

The webcast was part of an intense White House campaign to bolster support for the pact, which has divided the U.S. Jewish community.

Earlier on Friday, Democrat Tom Carper of Delaware became the 30th U.S. senator to announce that he would support the nuclear deal. Supporters need 34 of the 100 senators, or 146 members of the 435-seat House, to sustain a veto.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Susan Heavey and Dan Grebler)

ATHENS Former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' leftist Syriza will emerge as the biggest party in next month's election but without the majority it was hoping for, the first opinion polls since he resigned last week showed on Friday.

One found that almost two thirds of voters felt Tsipras should not have sought a fresh mandate, while three surveys showed that his favoured coalition ally, the Independent Greeks party, would not make it into parliament.

The polls suggested his gamble to call early elections scheduled for Sept. 20 to consolidate his power base could backfire, though in one of the polls over a quarter of voters remained undecided, making the final outcome far from clear.

Syriza was supported by 23 percent of those polled by ProRata for Friday's Efimerida Ton Syntakton newspaper, with the conservative opposition New Democracy party second on 19.5 percent. The previous ProRata poll in early July showed a wider gap in Syriza's favour, putting the party on 26 percent compared with 15 percent for New Democracy.

Syriza would get 29 percent and New Democracy party 27.8 percent if elections were held now, a poll conducted by Metron Analysis for Parapolitika newspaper showed. The result includes undecided voters.

Another poll by the University of Macedonia for Greek Skai TV showed Syriza leading the conservative opposition by three percentage points, with 61.5 percent saying Tsipras had pursued a wrong negotiating strategy with official lenders.

Syriza would get 25.3 percent of the vote versus 23.2 percent for New Democracy party another survey by polling company Marc for Alpha TV showed.

Tsipras remained the most popular political leader with 41 percent of voters having a positive or very positive view, with New Democracy leader Vangelis Meimarakis not far behind with 34 percent, according to ProRata.

But 64 percent of Greeks said they believed Tsipras's move to call snap polls was wrong, while 68 percent agreed that Greece must stay in the euro zone at any cost, even if that meant further austerity.

"The answers to these two questions lead to the conclusion that early elections may cost the (former) prime minister and Syriza," the newspaper said.

The presidency on Friday issued a decree confirming Sept. 20 as the election date.

A SECOND ROUND OF ELECTIONS?

A caretaker government led by Supreme Court judge Vassiliki Thanou was sworn in earlier, comprising both technocrats and political figures.

The latter include George Chouliarakis, who was part of Greece's bailout negotiating team under Syriza, as interim finance minister.

An ally of the former deputy Prime Minister Yannis Dragasakis, Chouliarakis took a decisive role in the talks in the summer and his appointment is likely to be seen as a positive for keeping the country's bailout programme on track.

"The basic goal is continuity so that precious time is not wasted. There has to be progress on the issue of reinforcing the Greek banking system as quickly as possible," Chouliarakis said during the handover ceremony.

The head of the council of euro zone finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, urged the interim government to continue preparations to implement the bailout during the run-up to the election and said Chouliarakis "knows what he's doing".

Nikos Christodoulakis, who served as economy minister from 2001-2004 under the Socialist PASOK government, took the other key portfolio of economy, shipping, tourism and infrastructure.

Tsipras abruptly resigned last week days after clinching an 86 billion euro ($97.2 billion) bailout package from European and International Monetary Fund lenders, hoping to crush a rebellion by far-left lawmakers and tighten his grip on power.

Popular Unity, the party formed last week by Syriza rebels who oppose the bailout, was backed by 3.5 percent in the ProRata poll - above the 3 percent threshold needed to enter parliament - and 4.1 percent in the poll by Metron Analysis.

The University of Macedonia poll showed it would score 5 percent.

But the Independent Greeks, the ally in Tsipras' former coalition government, scored roughly 2 percent in three polls, meaning Syriza would be forced to seek another coalition partner.

Tsipras this week ruled out cooperating with the main pro-euro opposition parties - New Democracy, the Socialist PASOK and the centrist To Potami. The poll's result suggested that, in that event, the country would face a second round of elections.

Still, with Syriza's move to accept the EU/IMF bailout, the next parliament will continue have a substantial majority of pro-bailout parties, meaning the country's future in the euro zone looks more secure than it did at the start of the year.

One third of those who supported Tsipras' party in the January 2015 elections that took him into office said they were unsure if they will do so again, the ProRata poll said.

It also showed 25.5 percent of voters were still undecided, making them the biggest bloc.

(Additional reporting by Toby Sterling in The Hague, George Georgiopoulos and Greg Roumeliotis in Athens; Writing by Deepa Babington; Editing by John Stonestreet)

BAGHDAD Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Friday ordered security forces to ease access to Baghdad's fortified Green Zone and main streets, in an apparent bid to improve daily life for ordinary Iraqis as fresh protests erupted across the country.

The capital and many southern cities have witnessed demonstrations in recent weeks calling for provision of basic services, the trial of corrupt politicians, and the shakeup of a system riddled with graft and incompetence.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators filled Baghdad's Tahrir Square on Friday in what a senior security official called the biggest protest of the summer. Thousands more rallied in Najaf, Basra and other cities across the Shi'ite southern heartland following a call from powerful Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Protesters' demands, which initially aimed at improving power supply amid a sweltering heatwave, have focussed more on encouraging Abadi to accelerate reforms, put corrupt officials on trial and loosen the grip of powerful parties over the state.

"What Abadi has done so far is just casual reform. It's not the real reforms that most of the Iraqis are looking for," said Mazen al-Ushaiqer, a civil society leader at the Baghdad rally. "He is trying very hard but we think he can try harder."

Partly in response to protests earlier this month, Abadi began pushing reforms to a system he says has deprived Iraqis of basic services and undermined the fight against Islamic State militants.

He announced several measures to combat corruption and mismanagement including scrapping layers of senior government posts, cutting security details and other perks for officials, and encouraging corruption investigations.

On Friday, he directed military commanders to ease civilian access to the Green Zone, the central Baghdad district home to many government buildings and several Western embassies.

The 10-square-kilometre area on the bank of the Tigris River once housed the headquarters of the U.S. occupation and before that one of Saddam Hussein's republican palaces.

Checkpoints and concrete barriers have blocked bridges and highways leading to the neighbourhood for years, symbolising the isolation of Iraq's leadership from its people and wreaking havoc on traffic in the city of 7 million people.

Abadi also ordered the elimination of no-go zones set up by militias and political parties in Baghdad and other cities in response to more than a decade of car bombings.

SECURITY CONCERNS

Friday's edicts showed that security remains a high priority. Abadi called for a plan "to protect civilians ... from being targeted by terrorism", according to online statements, but did not identify specific measures or a timeline.

Though he has managed to reduce the army's security role in the city and lifted a nighttime curfew, movement in many areas remains constrained by blast walls despite a pledge in November to remove them.

Bomb attacks, many of them claimed by Islamic State, continue to strike the Iraqi capital.

At least six people were killed on Friday morning in a car bomb attack in the southern district of Zafaraniyah, police and medical sources said. Islamic State insurgents, who control large swathes of the country's north and west, said in an online statement they were behind the blast at a police headquarters.

Security at Friday's protests was tight and helicopters circled overhead. At the Baghdad protest at least four people were wounded in clashes and security forces detained a handful of youths carrying weapons.

Hamid Mutlak, a member of parliament's security committee, warned against unnamed elements he said wanted to undermine the momentum towards reform and urged Abadi to take decisive action.

"Mr Abadi should be clear, candid, precise and brave," Mutlak told Al Arabiya television. "He should name the corrupt people, refer them to the judiciary and sack them."

"PREVIOUS PROMISES"

Abadi ordered on Friday the formation of a legal committee to review the ownership of state properties and return illegally gained assets to the state. Critics say some officials have abused their authority to appropriate state-owned properties for personal use.

Top Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who wields authority few Iraqi politicians would openly challenge, has called on Abadi to "strike with an iron fist" against corruption.

On Friday, he cautioned protesters against letting personal goals distract from their demands while urging politicians to provide tangible results of reform measures.

"The citizens have tried previous promises and found nothing in reality that would solve the problems they have suffered from for so long. They saw that these promises were only aimed at temporarily relieving their suffering," Sistani said in a sermon delivered by a spokesman.

The provincial governors of Muthanna and Qadisiya, in Iraq's oil-producing south, offered to resign on Friday, local officials said, following allegations of administrative and financial wrongdoing. It was not immediately clear when they would leave their posts.

(Additional reporting by Saif Hamdeen, Thaier al-Sudani and Reuters TV in Baghdad and Aref Mohammed in Basra; editing by Andrew Roche)

ATHENS Former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' Syriza party would get 25 percent of the vote in a Sept. 20 snap election, versus 22 percent for the conservative New Democracy party, a University of Macedonia opinion poll showed on Friday.

Tsipras abruptly resigned last week, days after clinching an 86 billion-euro ($97.2 billion) bailout package from European and International Monetary Fund lenders, hoping to crush a rebellion by far-left lawmakers and tighten his grip on power.

The survey for Greek Skai TV showed that Popular Unity, a party formed last week by disaffected Syriza rebels who oppose the country's latest 86 billion-euro bailout, would be backed by 5 percent of those polled.

Centrist party Potami ranked third along with the KKE communist party at 6 percent each, followed by far-right Golden Dawn at 5.5 percent.

Syriza's former coalition ally, the right-wing Independent Greeks party would score 2 percent, below the 3 percent threshold to win seats in parliament.

The poll said 14.5 percent of those surveyed were undecided.

(Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; editing by Andrew Roche)

WASHINGTON President Barack Obama reassured U.S. Jewish groups on Friday that the U.S.-Israel relationship is strong, despite differences over the nuclear deal with Iran, and called for more talks between the two governments on security cooperation.

"As soon as this particular debate is over, my hope is that the Israeli government will immediately want to rejoin conversations that we started long before about how we can continue to improve and enhance Israel's security in a very troubled neighbourhood," Obama said during a webcast focussed on the international nuclear agreement.

Obama said Washington and Israel have been in talks "for months" about getting security talks back on track, and those talks could include the next-generation missile defence and improved intelligence.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been a fierce critic of the nuclear deal, in which six world powers agreed to ease economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for Tehran curtailing its nuclear programme.

Netanyahu's government, and some U.S. pro-Israel groups, have lobbied fiercely against the nuclear agreement, potentially a core foreign policy achievement of Obama's presidency if successful.

Members of Congress have until Sept. 17 to vote on a "resolution of disapproval" of the nuclear agreement. If it passes, and survives Obama's veto, it could cripple the deal by eliminating Obama's ability to waive many U.S. sanctions.

U.S. Republicans are largely united against the agreement, and have allied themselves with Netanyahu's government against it. They angered the White House earlier this year by inviting the Israeli leader to address Congress without consulting the administration.

Obama said the U.S. commitment to Israel is "sacrosanct and it is non-partisan."

He added, "Everybody keep in mind that we're all pro-Israel ... We have to make sure that we don't impugn people's motives even as we have what is a very serious debate."

As Congress has considered the nuclear agreement, announced on July 14, its supporters have denounced opponents as "war hawks" and opponents have accused supporters of betraying Israel.

The webcast was part of an intense White House campaign to bolster support for the pact, which has divided the U.S. Jewish community.

Earlier on Friday, Democrat Tom Carper of Delaware became the 30th U.S. senator to announce that he would support the nuclear deal. Supporters need 34 of the 100 senators, or 146 members of the 435-seat House, to sustain a veto.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Susan Heavey and Dan Grebler)

BANGUI A militia in the Central African Republic released 163 enslaved children on Friday, partly fulfilling a pledge made as part of a U.N.-brokered deal, a U.N. agency said.

The children, freed by the mostly Christian anti-Balaka militia, are among more than 6,000 thought to have been made to do menial work such as cooking or cleaning, or as fighters, for armed groups.

The anti-Balaka militia itself is believed to be still holding many more children, like other groups on both sides of the country's religiously-coloured conflict.

"This release is a sign that the process of implementing the commitment made by the leaders of these groups, as a part of the peace and reconciliation process, is on track," said Mohamed Malick Fall from U.N. children's agency UNICEF which facilitated their release in the northern town of Batangafo.

He added that hundreds of other children were expected to be released before year end. More than 350 were freed by armed groups in May.

Elsewhere in the former French colony, violence has increased in recent days following a period of relative calm since a U.N.-brokered peace deal in May.

Clashes between rival militias broke out in the central region of Bambari, killing about 10 people, after anti-Balakas beheaded a Muslim youth last week.

United Nations Refugee Agency UNHCR said several thousand people had been forced from their homes by the renewed violence.

UNHCR representative Kouassi Lazare Etien said he was worried about the vulnerability of Sudanese refugees trapped in a camp nearby who were at "high risk of attacks".

The country was plunged into violence in March 2013 when mostly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power, triggering a conflict thought to have killed thousands.

The Seleka-backed government was forced to step down the following year and anti-Balaka groups drove out many minority Muslims from the south, leading to de facto partition.

French and U.N. peacekeeping forces are in the country to help ease the process back to democratic rule ahead of elections later this year.

(Writing by Emma Farge; editing by Andrew Roche)

LIMA A 5.5-magnitude earthquake shook buildings in the Peruvian capital Lima on Friday but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The quake struck near the province of Yauyos, some 130 kilometres (80 miles) southeast of Lima, at a depth of 94 km (59 miles), Peru's Geophysical Institute said.

(Reporting by Mitra Taj; Editing by Chris Reese and James Dalgleish)

LA ROCHELLE, France French Socialists welcomed a decision by two senior Green lawmakers to split away and create a new movement to support them, saying on Friday it would strengthen the Left's hand in regional and presidential elections.

The extra support could be key for Socialist President Francois Hollande's chances to get re-elected in 2017 as well as for regional elections in December.

The Greens were a junior ally in Hollande's government until they decided last year to leave, angered by what they said was a move toward more centrist economic and social policies.

But Jean-Vincent Place, the Greens' head of group in the Senate, earlier on Friday quit his party over its decision to distance itself from the Socialists, one day after the party's chief lawmaker in the lower house of parliament Francois de Rugy did the same.

Place said the Greens had become "sectarian" and veered too far to the left and he wanted to gather "reform-minded" pro-environment politicians in a new structure.

"I salute the Greens who say they don't want to drive the Left in a brick wall," senior Socialist lawmaker Bruno Le Roux told reporters at an annual Socialist party gathering.

"If we remain fragmented, if we remain divided ... the Left will allow the right and far-right to dominate the debate," Socialist Party secretary general Jean-Christophe Cambadelis said.

The Greens have lost voters over the past years, but if they decide to stand against Hollande in the presidential vote, even a weak Green candidate could take away enough left-wing votes to stop him getting to the second round.

Some Socialists were quick to hint that the two Greens could be rewarded by ministerial portfolios.

The Green resignations were also a welcome distraction for Socialists from their own woes, after pro-business Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron laid bare the divisions on economic policy by appearing to again criticise France's 35-hour work-week, an iconic Socialist law.

While Socialist party members backed Hollande's policies in a party vote in May, backbenchers are unhappy with a government they see as too pro-business.

(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau in Paris)

MIAMI Tropical Storm Erika threatened Haiti and the Dominican Republic with heavy rain and strong winds on Friday as it swirled across the Caribbean and geared up for a run at south Florida, the U.S. National Hurricane Centre said.

At least 12 people were confirmed dead on the island of Dominica, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said on Twitter, adding: "The number may be higher."

Due to some likely weakening over mountainous areas, Erika was no longer forecast to make landfall in the United States as a hurricane. But it may still smack the Miami area by late Sunday with sustained winds of 60 miles per hour (97 kph), before sweeping northward up the Florida peninsula, toward Orlando's popular theme parks.

Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency on Friday, noting the storm could travel "up the spine of Florida" from Sunday into next week.

Scott said the Tampa area on Florida's Gulf Coast was a major flood concern due to saturation from rain earlier this month.

He urged residents, especially those who have moved to Florida in the decade since Hurricane Wilma - the last major storm to hit the state, in 2005 - to follow news reports and make possible evacuation plans.

U.S. President Barack Obama has asked for regular updates on the forecast for Erika over the weekend, White House spokesman, Josh Earnest said.

The storm also caused cruise lines to adjust itineries for some ships coming in and out of South Florida, rerouting to avoid the storm.

The greatest risk over the next few days is heavy rainfall over the Dominican Republic and impoverished Haiti's notoriously eroded hillsides, with up to 10 inches (25 cm) possible in some areas. This could cause "life-threatening flash floods and mud slides," the Miami-based NHC said.

Dominica's prime minister said in a radio broadcast that emergency officials were searching for several missing people after rain-triggered landslides on Thursday on the small, mountainous island with a population of about 72,000.

Overflowing rivers and landslides washed away several roads and bridges there, and the nation's Tourism Minister Robert Tonge posted photographs and video on Facebook showing widespread flooding in the capital.

For days, forecasters have described Erika, the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, as unusually hard to predict due to disruption from wind patterns and its interaction over land, which weakens a storm, as well as warm water, which adds energy.

As Erika neared the Dominican Republic's capital, Santo Domingo, on Friday, its sustained winds were measured at 50 mph, the NHC said.

The storm should weaken as it passes over the mountains of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, "and could degenerate to a tropical wave," the centre said.

If Erika survives the mountains, it would probably regain intensity over warm seas in the Bahamas and the Straits of Florida, it added.

(Additonal reporting by Bill Cotterell in Tallahassee and Roberta Rampton in Washington; editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Louise Ireland and G Crosse)

ANKARA Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu appointed nationalist and pro-Kurdish opposition politicians to an interim power-sharing cabinet on Friday, but left his finance and economy ministers unchanged in a team dominated by ruling party loyalists.

Davutoglu was forced to form the temporary cabinet after his AK Party failed to find a junior coalition partner following the loss of its parliamentary majority in a June election which ended more than a decade of single-party rule.

The uncertainty has unnerved investors in Turkey's $870 billion economy and comes as it battles Kurdish militants at home and Islamic State fighters on its borders, helping send the lira currency to a series of record lows.

The interim cabinet will now lead the NATO member and aspiring European Union candidate to a new election on Nov. 1.

Feridun Sinirlioglu, undersecretary at the foreign ministry since 2009, was named as the new foreign minister, a critical post as Turkish fighter jets prepare to ramp up air strikes with U.S.-led coalition forces against Islamic State in Syria.

Government sources said former development minister Cevdet Yilmaz would meanwhile take over as deputy prime minister in charge of the economy, replacing the highly-regarded Ali Babacan, who leaves office because of a ruling AK Party limit on the number of terms its members can serve in parliament.

Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek and Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci both retained their existing roles.

Reading the list of appointments without commenting further, Davutoglu named Tugrul Turkes, son of the founder of the nationalist MHP, as one of four deputy prime ministers. The MHP had said it would not join the interim cabinet and Turkes could face expulsion from the party as a result.

Ali Haydar Konca and Muslum Dogan, members of the pro-Kurdish HDP, were named EU minister and development minister respectively. The presence of Kurdish opposition politicians in cabinet posts, particularly as clashes between the army and Kurdish militants intensify, could stir nationalist anger.

Istanbul police chief Selami Altinok, who has overseen heavy security measures in Turkey's biggest city in a bid to prevent a repeat of widespread anti-government demonstrations in 2013, was named as the new interior minister.

LITTLE SHIFT IN POLICY

Speaking earlier on Friday before President Tayyip Erdogan approved the appointments, Davutoglu dismissed the notion that his new team would simply be a caretaker cabinet ahead of the new election.

"On our way to Nov. 1, we will act like a government elected for four years. Our nation should be at ease about this. We will not be working in the mood of an interim government," he said.

But the cabinet is likely to meet only a few times before November and its primary task will be overseeing the election rather than formulating new policy, meaning there is little chance of a shift in direction in key areas such as foreign affairs or the economy, senior officials say.

Two polls this week have suggested the AKP is unlikely to win back its majority in November, raising the prospect of another round of coalition efforts later in the year.

A third survey, by pollster ORC, which has overestimated ruling party support in the past, suggested the AKP would win 43.7 percent of the vote, up from 40.7 in June. But that would still not necessarily be enough to govern alone.

"Although polls vary, no single party currently appears able to win a simple majority in the upcoming elections, suggesting another round of fractious coalition negotiations resulting in a minority government or a multi-party coalition," ratings agency Moody's said in a commentary on Thursday.

"Such a government would likely be inherently unstable, and we would expect a high likelihood of additional elections before the nominal end of the parliamentary term in 2019."

Davutoglu had invited opposition members to take up 11 posts in the 26-member interim cabinet, in line with a constitutional requirement to share power in proportion to the seats political parties hold in parliament. But most declined.

Seats not taken up by opposition parties were given to "independent" candidates from outside parliament, many of them, like Sinirlioglu and Altinok, senior officials who have already worked under an AKP government for several years.

(Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Ece Toksabay and Dasha Afanasieva)

ISTANBUL Turkey's former Development Minister Cevdet Yilmaz will take over as deputy prime minister in charge of the economy in an interim power-sharing government announced on Friday, government sources told Reuters.

Yilmaz takes over from outgoing Deputy PM Ali Babacan, highly regarded by international investors for his stewardship of the economy, who is leaving office because of a ruling party limit on the number of terms members can serve in parliament.

(Reporting by Orhan Coskun; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Ece Toksabay)

Rebekah Brooks will return to her old job at News Corp (NWSA.O) heading its British newspaper division, the Financial Times reported on Friday, just over a year after being cleared of criminal charges in a phone-hacking scandal.

Her return to Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate could be as soon as early September, the Financial Times said, citing people familiar with the matter. (on.ft.com/1JBZNLa)

Reuters reported in March that Brooks, the former editor of the News of the World tabloid and seen as Murdoch's protege, was in talks about returning to News Corp.

"As we ‎have said, we have been having discussions with Rebekah Brooks and when we have any announcements to make we will let you know," a News Corp spokesman said on Friday.

News UK, which covers Murdoch's British newspaper titles, declined further comment.

British prosecutors also said on Friday they had received evidence relating to the phone-hacking investigation at the media baron's newspapers and were mulling a possible corporate prosecution.

Brooks rose in 14 years from the most junior newsroom position to edit the country's biggest selling newspaper.

She was a good friend of the last three British prime ministers including David Cameron, and was pictured by Murdoch's side regularly.

She quit in July 2011 amid revelations that News of the World staff had hacked into the phones of thousands of people to break news.

The scandal started in 2006 when the former royal editor of News of the World, Clive Goodman, and his investigator Glenn Mulcaire, admitted they had hacked the phones of royal aides.

As revelations grew, police launched a wider investigation into hacking under the codename Operation Weeting in 2011 that led to the jailing for 18 months of the paper's ex-editor Andy Coulson.

Brooks was arrested and charged with being part of a conspiracy to hack into phones to find exclusive stories, of authorising illegal payments to public officials and of trying to hinder the police investigation.

She denied all the charges and was found not guilty in June 2014 after an eight-month trial.

(Reporting by Kate Holton in London and Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru; editing by Maju Samuel and David Clarke)

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe on Friday vowed to press for gun control reforms following the deaths of two television journalists by a former station employee in an on-air shooting.

The pledge by McAuliffe, a Democrat, came as more details emerged about the Wednesday shooting of the journalists at Roanoke station WDBJ7, including ammunition, letters and clothing found in the gunman's car.

Speaking after visiting the station's offices, McAuliffe said he would reintroduce legislation in the state assembly mandating background checks for gun buyers. The Republican-led legislature has rejected his gun control efforts since he took office last year.

"There are too many guns in America, and there is clearly too many guns in the wrong hands. So we're going to continue to do what we can," McAuliffe told a news conference.

He said he owned three guns and called background checks "common sense."

There were about 34,000 firearms deaths in 2013, almost two-thirds of them suicides, U.S. data showed.

Reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward were slain during a live interview by disgruntled former employee Vester Flanagan, who later shot himself and died.

McAuliffe said he had spoken with Parker's father, who has said he will campaign for gun control.

It was not immediately clear how McAuliffe's proposal could have impacted Wednesday's shooting.

Citing a federal law enforcement source, USA Today said Flanagan had legally bought two Glock handguns, including the one used in the attack. He was able to pass a background check despite his apparent emotional problems, it reported.

In a fax to ABC News the day of the shooting, Flanagan, who was black, called himself a "powder keg" of anger over what he saw as racial discrimination. He was fired from WDBJ7, a CBS affiliate, in 2013.

A spokeswoman for the Roanoke medical examiner said Parker died from gunshot wounds to her head and chest and Ward was killed by shots to his head and torso.

Flanagan shot himself on a highway in northern Virginia. A search warrant showed police found a .40-caliber Glock pistol with a magazine and ammunition, 9mm ammunition, more magazines and a pistol case.

Other items included 17 stamped letters, a to-do list and briefcase with three license plates, a wig and sunglasses, the warrant said.

Police were tipped to Flanagan when he sent a text message to an unidentified friend "making reference to having done something stupid," it added.

(Reporting by Laila Kearney in New York and Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Susan Heavey)

EISENSTADT, Austria/TRIPOLI Austria said on Friday 71 refugees, including a baby girl, were found dead in an abandoned freezer truck, while Libya recovered the bodies of 105 migrants washed ashore after their overcrowded boat sank on its way to Europe. Almost 100 more were missing and feared dead.

Both tragedies were a result of a renewed surge in migrants fleeing war and poverty that has confronted Europe with its worst refugee crisis since World War Two.

The International Organization for Migration said it estimated a third of a million people had crossed the Mediterranean so far this year to wash up in southern Europe.

Almost two-thirds had arrived in Greece and most of the rest in Italy. At least 2,636 had perished in the attempt.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said European Union leaders were ready for an emergency meeting, if necessary, to discuss the refugee crisis. The White House urged Europe to crack down on traffickers and ensure that migrants' human rights were protected.

In the latest disaster off the coast of North Africa, a vessel packed with an estimated 400 migrants sank on Thursday after leaving Zuwara in Libya. The port is a major launchpad for smugglers exploiting a security vacuum in a country with two rival governments.

Lacking navy ships, Libyan officials were searching for survivors with fishing boats and inflatables provided by locals. About 198 people had been rescued by noon, officials said.

"The boat was in a bad condition and people died with us," said Ayman Talaal, a Syrian survivor, standing next to his daughter. "We have been forced into this route. It's now called the grave of the Mediterranean Sea."

The migrants were from sub-Saharan Africa, Pakistan, Syria, Morocco and Bangladesh, a security official said. Many appeared to have been trapped in the hold when the boat capsized.

Local officials and residents were putting bodies into red bags on a beach littered with shoes, trousers and other personal items from drowned migrants.

STARVED OF AIR

Most migrant deaths have happened at sea. The gruesome find of a truckload of corpses in Austria highlighted the danger faced by those who make it across to southern Europe but depend on trafficking gangs to ship them north towards more affluent countries like Germany.

A motorway patrol discovered the abandoned lorry near the Hungarian border on Thursday, probably at least 24 hours after it had been parked there. The refugees appeared to have been dead for up to two days and fluids from the decomposing bodies were seeping from its door.

A Syrian travel document was found among the victims, but more time is needed to determine whether people of other nationalities were on board, Hans Peter Doskozil, police chief for the province of Burgenland, told a news conference.

The back door of the truck was not locked but secured shut with wires. Its refrigeration system showed no signs of having been switched on and there were no vents to allow fresh air inside, Doskozil told Reuters. The victims had been wearing light summer clothes.

Of the 71 dead, 59 were men, eight were women, and four were children, including a girl estimated at one to two years old and three boys aged roughly eight to 10.

Hungarian police said they had arrested four men - three Bulgarians and an Afghan - and had questioned roughly 20 people after conducting house searches.

"We expect that this is the trace that will lead us to the perpetrators," Doskozil said, making clear that the people being held were not the ringleaders of the trafficking gang.

Authorities were transporting the bodies to different Austrian morgues. A Reuters witness saw one truck carrying around 10 bodies entering a Vienna forensics centre.

Refugees and migrants have been sweeping north through the Balkans. Thousands of Syrians, Afghans and Pakistanis have crossed from Serbia into EU-member Hungary, where authorities said more than 140,000 had been caught entering the country so far this year.

Hungary, which is part of Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone, is building a fence along its border with Serbia to contain what it calls a threat to European security, prosperity and identity.

It plans to tighten laws next week to curb migration pressure on the country. That includes using the army, if necessary, to help police near the southern border, lawmaker Gergely Gulyas of the ruling Fidesz party said.

Hungarian police said 10 Syrian migrants were injured when a van driven by a Romanian suspected of human trafficking overturned en route for Budapest.

In Greece, coastguards said they had rescued more than 1,600 migrants making their way to Greek islands near Turkey over the past three days.

Police in Sicily detained 10 people on suspicion of multiple homicide and aiding illegal immigration after 52 migrants were found suffocated in the hull of a boat this week.

The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said survivors said they had been beaten to force them into the hold, and then had to pay money to smugglers just to come out to breathe.

One of the survivors, an Iraqi orthopaedic surgeon, said he had paid 3,000 euros ($3,400) to come up on to the top deck with his wife and two-year-old son.

Last week, 49 people died in another boat's hold after inhaling poisonous fumes, and on Wednesday 21 people are thought to have died after a dinghy with 145 on board got into difficulty, UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.

(Writing by Giles Elgood and Mark Trevelyan, editing by Larry King)

BEIRUT An online fundraiser has raised more than $67,800 for a refugee from Syria and his daughter after a campaigner based in Norway shared moving pictures on social media of the man selling pens in the streets of Beirut.

Gissur Simonarson, founder of Conflict News, posted the pictures on Tuesday and was flooded with requests to help the man, a Palestinian from the devastated Yarmouk refugee camp on the southern outskirts of Damascus.

The pictures showed Abdul, a single father of two, holding up pens on a roadside in Lebanon's capital, his 4-year-old daughter Reem asleep on his shoulder, according to Simonarson's funding page.

A subsequent online campaign, which had initially aimed to raise $5,000, collected as much as $67,800 in 24 hours according to the page.

"It's nice to see people come together and make a difference in another person's life," Simonarson wrote.

Lebanon is home to well over 1 million refugees from Syria's war next door and such scenes are common in Beirut. Young refugee children sell flowers, packs of tissues or offer to shine shoes for a small sum.

(Reporting by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

MANILA Thousands of people belonging to a powerful local indigenous Christian organisation occupied a busy portion of the main highway in Manila on Friday to protest what they allege to be government's meddling over internal affairs of their church.

Members of Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) or INC also called for the resignation of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who was investigating an illegal detention case filed by a dismissed church minister against Iglesia's leaders.

Waving church flags and holding anti-government placards calling for religious freedom, Iglesia members chanted "Hustisya" (Justice) and "INC" as they blocked two busy intersections, causing late Friday night traffic jams.

Some 1000 church members began their protest by trooping to the Justice department on Thursday, even blocking de Lima's car from leaving the agency's premises, according to media reports.

On Friday, the members took their peaceful protest to the main EDSA highway, site of several demonstrations in the past including "people power" revolts that toppled two presidents.

"This is a display of INC solidarity," a member who joined the protest on the highway and who gave his name as Ka Vic told Reuters. "We responded to the call of our church leaders. The government should respect the separation of church and state."

Some members questioned the government's moves to probe infighting in the Iglesia when it has yet to bring justice to 44 elite police force members killed during a firefight with Muslim rebels in January. Two of the policemen who died were Iglesia members.

Police declined to give an estimate of the crowd that occupied the highway, but organizers were hoping to gather 50,000 members until Monday, a public holiday.

Presidential spokesman Herminio Coloma Jr said in a statement "the government does not wish to interfere in the internal affairs of any legitimate organization," adding it was not taking an adversarial position against the Iglesia.

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said police will exercise maximum tolerance over the crowd but stressed people's right to peaceful assembly should not cause inconvenience to others.

Political analysts said the protest was a show of force by the estimated 2-million-strong Iglesia, an influential group that politicians have courted in the past for votes. Iglesia members are widely known to follow their leaders' advice and vote as a bloc. The next presidential polls is set for May 2016.

About 80 per cent of the country's 100 million people are Catholic, with the rest comprised of Muslims and Christian groups including home-grown churches, the biggest of which is the Iglesia.

(Reporting by Rosemarie Francisco and Manuel Mogato)

KUALA LUMPUR Thousands of protesters are expected to march through Malaysia's capital on Saturday to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Razak, who has weathered public outrage over a multi-million-dollar payment made to a bank account under his name.

Security will be tight for the rally, which is due to run until Sunday evening, and a news portal reported that the army may intervene if the crowds get out of hand and a state of emergency is declared.

A military spokesman declined to comment on the report.

Kuala Lumpur authorities rejected an application by pro-democracy group Bersih for a permit to protest, setting the stage for a possible showdown with security forces. Police used water cannon and teargas to disperse protesters at Bersih's last big rally in 2012.

The activist group has also called for rallies in the cities of Kota Kinabalu and Kuching on the Malaysian side of Borneo.

The Eurasia Group consultancy said this week the movement would not topple the government and was unlikely to inspire broad public support because it lacked strong leadership from a credible opposition figure.

"The rally will register as a big protest. But in terms of actual change, I don't think anything will happen immediately," said Wan Saiful Wan Jan, chief executive of Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs.

The director of independent pollster Merdeka Center, Ibrahim Suffian, said discontent with Najib, who took office in 2009, is concentrated in urban areas and a national survey this month showed a slight majority were opposed to the rally.

The 62-year-old leader ran into trouble in July when it was reported that investigators looking into alleged mismanagement at debt-laden state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) had traced a payment of more than $600 million to an account under his name.

Malaysia's anti-graft agency has since verified the funds were a donation from the Middle East, which came just before a 2013 election. On Aug. 3, it said it would ask Najib to explain why the donation was deposited into his private account.

The prime minister's fiercest critic, former leader Mahathir Mohamad, this week said he did not believe the money was a donation and called again for Najib to go.

Najib, who has denied wrongdoing and says he did not take any money for personal gain, has not only ridden out the storm, he has tightened his grip on power through a series of deft steps to sideline would-be dissenters.

He sacked his deputy and other ministers who had publicly questioned him, and the attorney-general who was investigating 1MDB was replaced. Authorities suspended two newspapers and blocked access to a website that had reported on 1MDB.

Najib retains significant support from the long-ruling Barisan Nasional coalition and from within his party, United Malays National Organisation.

The party, which has been in power since 1957, lost the popular vote for the first time in 2013 to an opposition alliance that split this year.

On Friday, Bersih's website was blocked.

"They are infringing on the rights of the people to have access to information," said Maria Chin Abdullah, Bersih's chairwoman. "We are not there to create trouble."

(Editing by John Chalmers and Robert Birsel)

GENEVA A fresh surge of refugees and migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh is expected to set out in smugglers' rickety boats for southeast Asia when the monsoon season ends in about a month, the United Nations said on Friday.

Boatloads of minority Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar and Bangladeshis escaping poverty at home were turned away or towed further from the shores of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia earlier this year, triggering a humanitarian crisis.

"UNHCR is calling for urgent action before the end of the monsoon season unleashes a new wave of people leaving on boats from the Bay of Bengal," spokeswoman Melissa Fleming of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told a news briefing.

"We expect this to resume again in about a month," she said.

In a report, the UNHCR urged regional governments to avert another crisis in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea by implementing steps agreed in May to boost search and rescue operations and establish safe places of disembarkation with better reception facilities.

"There are appalling conditions on these boats and a bit of ping pong, and real concerns about access to territory," Fleming said.

An estimated 31,000 Rohingya and Bangladeshis departed from the Bay of Bangal by boat in the first half of this year, a 34 percent increase over the same period in 2014, the agency said.

In all, 94,000 people are estimated to have risked their lives making the journey since 2014. At least 1,100 others are believed to have drowned, including 370 so far this year.

Many who made it ashore were members of Myanmar's 1.1 million Rohingya minority who live in apartheid-like conditions in the country's western Rakhine state.

Myanmar does not recognise them as citizens, even though many have lived there for generations. The government refers to them as "Bengalis" and considers them illegal immigrants. It denies their claim that they are fleeing persecution.

The Thai government launched a crackdown on people-smuggling gangs in May after the discovery of mass graves of people who died from abuse or deprivation in smugglers' camps along the heavily-forested Thai-Malay border, a transit point.

"Last weekend's discovery of 24 more bodies in north-western Malaysia is a reminder about the ruthlessness of the smugglers," Fleming said.

(Editing by Gareth Jones)

ZUWARA, Libya Libya recovered 105 bodies after a boat packed with migrants sank in the Mediterranean Sea and said almost 100 more people were missing and feared dead.

The vessel sank on Thursday after leaving Zuwara, a major launchpad for smugglers shipping migrants to Italy by exploiting a security vacuum in Libya where rival governments are fighting for control four years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi.

Lacking navy ships, Libyan officials were searching for survivors with fishing boats and inflatables provided by locals. About 198 people had been rescued by noon, officials said.

"The boat was in a bad condition and people died with us," said Ayman Talaal, a Syrian survivor, standing next to his daughter. "We have been forced into this route. It's now called the grave of the Mediterranean Sea."

Local officials and residents were putting bodies into red bags on a beach littered with shoes, trousers and other personal items from drowned migrants. A blue inflatable brought in more bodies.

"We, the Red Crescent, work with nothing. Some fishermen help us with a boat," said Ibrahim al-Attoushi, an official at the Red Crescent in Zuwara. "We only have one ambulance car."

Lawless Libya has turned into a major transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to make it to Europe. Cross-border smuggler networks exploit the country's chaos to bring Syrians into Libya via Egypt or nationals of sub-Saharan countries via Niger, Sudan and Chad.

The migrants pay thousands of dollars for the land and sea passage with smugglers often beating and torturing them to press for more money for the final leg of the trip by sea in unseaworthy vessels, rights groups say.

NO COOPERATION

Libyan officials brought 147 survivors to a detention facility for illegal migrants in Sabratha, west of Tripoli, a Libyan security official said, asking not to be named.

"We have not received a request for help," said a spokesman for the Italian coast guard, which has been coordinating rescue operations with the European Union off the Libyan coast.

About 100 angry Zuwara residents took to the town's main square on Thursday when news of the sinking spread, demanding that authorities stop human traffickers, witnesses said.

Libya has asked the European Union for help to train and equip its navy which was largely destroyed during the uprising in 2011 that toppled Gaddafi.

But all training and cooperation was frozen in 2014 as the European Union boycotted a self-declared government controlling western Libya, which seized the capital Tripoli a year ago by expelling the official premier to the east.

Western and most Arab powers only deal with the eastern-based government, which has no control of western Libya from were boats are launched due to its proximity to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

The United Nations has been hosting peace talks between the two administrations to form a unity government but a Tripoli based rival parliament, riddled with divisions, refused to sign a preliminary agreement last month.

The number of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe has passed 300,000 this year, up from 219,000 in the whole of 2014, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday.

More than 2,500 people have died making the crossing this year, not including those feared drowned off Libya in the last 24 hours, it said. That compares with 3,500 who died or went missing in the Mediterranean in 2014.

Libya has been struggling to cope with the influx of migrants, putting them in overcrowded makeshift detention facilities such as schools or military barracks where they live in poor conditions lacking medical care.

(Reporting by Hani Amara and Ahmed Elumami; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

ATHENS Greek leftist leader Alexis Tsipras has seen off a threat from far-left rebels but his anti-austerity-turned-pro-bailout Syriza party is struggling through a deeply divisive identity crisis weeks before a national election.

Just hours after Tsipras resigned as prime minister last week to pave the way for early elections, a sixth of Syriza's lawmakers broke away to form their own party to fight the 86 billion euro bailout package their former boss signed up to.

The break-up initially allowed Tsipras to clear out his party's ranks of the vocal, anti-bailout faction that openly defied him in parliament.

But it has also deepened a rift in his party over Tsipras's abrupt U-turn to accept austerity measures that his party has long fought against and staked its identity on - a campaign that first propelled it to national power in January's national election.

The divisions underscore the struggle Tsipras faces in strengthening his grip on power in next month's vote, and risk leaving him without a strong mandate to implement the unpopular bailout programme keeping Greece afloat.

"Syriza may become more mainstream, but the government that will emerge from the election will remain a fragile one that will continue to struggle to meet the bailout conditions, and is likely enjoy a limited lifespan," analyst Teneo Intelligence said in a research report.

With just three weeks to go before the vote expected on Sept. 20, Tsipras risks losing popular candidates like his former Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and former spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis, both of whom have kept mum on whether they will run on the Syriza ticket.

"What we're examining now and what is at stake is the balance Syriza needs to strike between its traditional left values and managing the burden of the bailout," said one senior Syriza official, who had yet to decide whether to run.

Adding to his troubles, some members of Syriza's moderate "53+" faction, which has long supported Tsipras, have begun to accuse him of ignoring the party's interests and undermining its leftist values in favour of holding on to power.

Among them is Syriza's general secretary Tassos Koronakis, who quit on Monday after launching a blistering attack on Tsipras. He accused Tsipras of ignoring a decision by Syriza's central committee to hold a party congress in September - that would have allowed members to air differences - and calling elections instead.

"Speeding up the elections, combined with the content of our comrade prime minister's statement create the impression that we accept the bailout and the lack of popular sovereignty, not as the result of sheer blackmail but as a new fact which we have to live with," Koronakis wrote in his resignation letter.

"I've reached this painful stage where I cannot fulfil my role as a secretary of the central committee."

"NOT VIABLE"

The same day, Syriza lawmaker Iro Dioti announced that she would not run in the elections, saying the bailout deal could not be implemented because it is "not financially viable and deepens the recession as well as social inequality."

She said a party congress would have allowed Syriza to craft a plan to help Greece get rid of bailouts in the future but that the central committee's decision was not respected.

"As far as I'm concerned, I cannot serve this plan," she said in a statement.

The "53+" faction's main demand is that social policies that follow Syriza's leftist values are included in the party's campaign plan and that Tsipras commits to implementing them. One small faction within the group has even suggested it might join the breakaway far-left Popular Unity, Syriza officials say.

Tsipras is expected to address these concerns at a meeting this weekend of the party's powerful central committee, whose size has temporarily been reduced to about 150 members since the far-left rebel faction broke away.

He sought to reassure the "53+" faction by telling Alpha TV in an interview that he would respect the bailout agreement but try to limit its negative impact. "We have no other choice but to implement it, looking for a way to gradually disengage from the bailout and foreign monitors," he said.

Tsipras also rushed to praise another prominent 53+ member, the well-liked Tsakalotos, and said the former finance minister as well as former government spokesman Sakellaridis would run both for Syriza. Neither have confirmed such a move.

In Tsipras favour, however, another major party faction: the "Platform 2010" has stood by their leader and issued a statement that said: "Tsipras' government kept the country alive, laying out the path for its exit from the crisis."

HEADACHES

Fifty lawmakers issued a statement on Friday backing Tsipras: "We are present, full force, for our country's future," they said in a statement.

But prominent individual Syriza figures who have rebelled are also creating new headaches for Tsipras. Former Deputy Finance Minister Nadia Valavani joined Popular Unity on Friday. Former parliament speaker Zoe Konstantopoulou is reportedly mulling setting up her own party, which could further eat into Tsipras's voter base.

In the meantime, an open war of words has broken out between Tsipras and another former finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis. The outspoken, motorcyle-riding academic left the post last month after alienating his euro zone counterparts.

In the Alpha TV interview this week, Tsipras said Varoufakis "lost his credibility against his interlocutors" at the height of bailout negotiations and that "Varoufakis was talking but nobody paid any attention to him".

Varoufakis - who remains popular in Greece with 27 percent of voters approving his recent actions in a poll published on Friday - shot back that Tsipras was presiding over the disintegration of his own party.

"Ι heard (Tsipras aide) Nikos Pappas saying that Syriza was toppled from within. It is true, it was toppled by its leadership," Varoufakis told Reuters. "Its leadership decided that Syriza does not exist anymore ... Lafazanis left, there is a collapse in the morale of members, regardless of which faction they belong to."

(Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)