LONDON (Reuters) – Most headlines about Basra, the port city in southern Iraq that is home to the bulk of the country’s vast oil wealth, tend to focus on death, destruction and wasted opportunity after five years of war.

KIEV (Reuters) – Floods in western Ukraine have killed 30 people and prompted the evacuation of nearly 18,000, officials said on Thursday, after five days of rain caused rivers to spill over into villages and farmland.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will try to reach an agreement in peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas before a new Israeli government takes office, an official close to Olmert said on Thursday.