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The International Monetary Fund on Thursday urged Greece to speedily deliver on its bailout program, adding that doing so would ensure the country encounters "no financing problems." _0"> "If the review is concluded by the end of July, as expected, no financing problems will arise because the program is financed till end-July 2014," IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said in a statement. The Financial Times reported on Thursday the IMF might suspend aid to Greece next month unless euro zone leaders plugged a funding gap in the Greek rescue program.   Reuters reported on Wednesday that European foot-dragging could leave Greece some 2 billion euros ($2.7 billion) short this year as some euro zone creditors were reluctant to roll over their Greek debt holdings. (Reporting by Alister Bull and Timothy Ahmann)

A suicide bomber killed seven people at an Iraqi vote counting center on Thursday evening, police said, hours after polls closed in two Sunni Muslim-dominated provinces. _0"> Most Iraqis voted for provincial councils in April but the Shi'ite-led government postponed elections in Anbar and Nineveh, citing security concerns after months of protests by the country's Sunni minority. The decision to delay voting in those governorates was criticized by the United States, which said it would compound a sense of Sunni marginalization that has fuelled a wave of violent unrest.   More than 1,000 people were killed in militant attacks in Iraq in May, making it the deadliest month since the height of sectarian bloodletting in 2006-07. The suicide bomber blew himself up at a vote-counting center in the city of Ramadi in Anbar province, killing seven people, four of whom were members of Iraq's electoral commission. Earlier on Thursday, a roadside bomb hit a bus carrying fi

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro announced the arrest of a senior tax official on Thursday in the latest move in what he says is a concerted effort to stamp out corruption in the South American OPEC nation. Maduro said the local director of the SENIAT tax authority in the coastal city of La Guaira had been caught by state intelligence agents with more than 4 million bolivars in cash (about $635,000 at the official exchange rate).   "We raided the luxury apartment in eastern Caracas where this bandit was doing business. He was caught in the act with his accomplices," said Maduro, who won a presidential election in April after the death of his mentor, Hugo Chavez. "He was walking around freely, personally taking bribes ... I call on everyone, the revolutionaries, the honest people, to support me in the fight against corruption." So far, Maduro's new drive against graft has snared several senior officials from state companies, organizations and govern

Britain and a representative of the Falkland Islands on Thursday rejected the idea of Pope Francis intervening in the long-running dispute with Argentina over the islands, which Buenos Aires claims are Argentine territory. _0"> In 1982 Britain sent its armed forces to the Falklands to repel an Argentine invasion of the contested South Atlantic archipelago, which Argentina calls Las Malvinas.   Just over 30 years later, memories of the conflict remain and Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has mounted a campaign to renegotiate the islands' sovereignty, lobbying Pope Francis on the issue and rejecting a March referendum in which Falkland residents voted to remain a British Overseas Territory. "I think the last thing we need is religion inserted into this," said Mike Summers, a member of the Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly. Mark Lyall Grant, Britain's U.N. ambassador, echoed his remarks, saying: "I certainly share the view that religion is n

The Mexican state of Veracruz was hit by heavy rains on Thursday after Tropical Storm Barry moved away from Mexico's major oil installations and weakened to a Tropical Depression. _0"> Only one of Mexico's three major oil-exporting ports - Dos Bocas - remained closed, but state oil monopoly Pemex said it was unaffected by the storm. Almost all of Mexico's crude oil exports, which totaled 1.275 million barrels per day (bpd) in April, are shipped to refineries on the Gulf Coast of the United States from the ports of Coatzacoalcos, Dos Bocas and Cayo Arcas. The rains falling in the town of Actopan in Veracruz were more severe than those during Hurricane Karl, a Category 3 storm that battered the state in 2010, said town spokesman Rafael Alberto Moreno. There is a risk that the Actopan River, one of the biggest in the state, might overflow and townspeople were being evacuated from their homes, he said.   Barry is expected to lose strength during the course of Thu

A fresh effort to end Afghanistan's 12-year-old war was in limbo on Thursday after a diplomatic spat about the Taliban's new Qatar office delayed preliminary discussions between the United States and the Islamist insurgents. A meeting between U.S. officials and representatives of the Taliban had been set for Thursday in Qatar but Afghan government anger at the fanfare surrounding the opening of a Taliban office in the Gulf state threw preparations into confusion. The squabble may set the tone for what could be arduous negotiations to end a conflict that has torn at Afghanistan's stability since the U.S. invasion following the September 11, 2001 al Qaeda attacks on U.S. targets.   Asked when the talks would now take place, a source in Doha said, "There is nothing scheduled that I am aware of." But the U.S. government said it was confident the U.S.-Taliban talks would soon go forward. "We anticipate these talks happening in the coming days," said St

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday urged Greece to speedily deliver on its bailout program, adding that doing so would ensure the country encounters "no financing problems." _0"> There is an ongoing review of the Greek bailout program, the IMF said on Thursday. "If the review is concluded by the end of July, as expected, no financing problems will arise because the program is financed till end-July 2014," IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said in a brief statement.   The Financial Times reported on Thursday the IMF might suspend aid to Greece next month unless euro zone leaders plugged a funding gap in the Greek rescue program. Reuters reported on Wednesday that European foot-dragging could leave Greece some 2 billion euros ($2.7 billion) short this year as some euro zone creditors were reluctant to roll over their Greek debt holdings. Greece's creditors - euro zone countries, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund - agree