KAMPALA, Uganda — United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday urged African leaders to implement a peace plan that the U.N. hopes will stabilize eastern Congo, a region long plagued by violence and which now is back on edge.

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TORONTO — Qatar has abandoned its bid to relocate the United Nations civil aviation agency from Canada to the tiny emirate, ending a bitter fight between the two nations, both countries said Friday.

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TORONTO — Toronto Mayor Rob Ford denied that he smokes crack cocaine and said he is not an addict, breaking a week of silence over reports of a video purportedly showing him using the drug. Critics were not appeased, with one city councilor questioning whether the mayor told "the whole truth" and another calling on him to resign.

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SANAA, Yemen — A security official says al-Qaida gunmen attacked a military position in a southern province, touching off fighting that left three militants and two soldiers dead.

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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — An American man killed his uncle, aunt and cousins in the Czech Republic and then flew to the United States, where he was arrested at an airport, authorities said Friday.

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QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuador's Rafael Correa began his third term as president on Friday under seemingly ideal conditions: extremely high popularity, a more than two-thirds majority in Congress, a stable economy and a badly splintered opposition.

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MOSCOW — World stocks edged lower on Friday, a day after markets around the world dropped sharply on concerns global growth is slowing and the Federal Reserve could start scaling back its monetary stimulus.

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GENEVA — Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is in Switzerland to seal a free trade pact with the Alpine nation - the first comprehensive agreement his country has reached with a major western economy.

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NAIROBI, Kenya — Patients at Kenya's only psychiatric hospital are often confined and immobilized using drugs that put them in a comatose-like state, factors that may have led to the recent escape of 40 male patients, an advocacy group said Friday.

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LONDON — Britain scrambled fighter jets Friday to intercept a commercial airliner carrying more than 300 people from Pakistan, diverting it to an isolated runway at an airport on the outskirts of London and arresting two British passengers who allegedly threatened to destroy the plane.

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PARIS — The French government is trying to woo executives and entrepreneurs, amid concerns that it has antagonized the businesses needed to reinvigorate the economy.

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ANKARA, Turkey — A look at legislation passed in Turkey's parliament early Friday that would ban all alcohol advertising and tighten restrictions on the sale of such beverages, and how such a law could affect tourists and liquor companies in the mainly Muslim but secular country.

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VIENNA — The U.N. nuclear agency responsible for probing whether Iran has worked on a nuclear bomb depends on the United States and its allies for most of its intelligence, complicating the agency's efforts to produce findings that can be widely accepted by the international community.

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MAPUTO, Mozambique — In a story May 21 about U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visiting Mozambique, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Mozambique became independent in 1974, instead of 1975.

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KABUL, Afghanistan — In the latest militant strike on the Afghan capital, Taliban gunmen backed by a suicide car bomber attacked an international aid group's compound on Friday, killing two guards and setting off an hours-long street battle with police in the heart of Kabul .

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LUXOR, Egypt — A mother and two daughters were allegedly killed by male relatives in southern Egypt who believed they'd had affairs, the latest apparent example of so-called "honor killings" in which women are slain for violating traditional morals in the conservative region, a security official said Friday.

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HARARE, Zimbabwe — A Zimbabwean human rights activist says he wants the nation's highest court to order prison authorities to ensure suspects in jail can receive their life-prolonging HIV/AIDS medications.

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NIAMEY, Niger — With the help of French special forces, Niger's military on Friday killed the last two jihadists holed up inside a dormitory on the grounds of a military garrison in the desert town of Agadez, and freed at least two soldiers who had been held hostage by the extremists, according to French and Nigerien officials.

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ISLAMABAD — President Barack Obama's decision to impose more restrictive rules governing U.S. drone strikes and his prediction that they will be used less could pave the way for better relations with the new government of key ally Pakistan, officials and analysts said Friday.

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GENEVA — Switzerland's top negotiator in talks to resolve disputes over tax evasion with Europe and the U.S. is stepping down.

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