JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers is asking state-owned power utility Eskom to increase wages by up to 3,500 rand and hike the housing allowance by an additional 3,000 rand, the union said on Friday. The union also said it was pushing for a one-year agreement rather than a multi-year deal.

By Joseph Menn WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The proliferation of hacking tools known as zero-day exploits is raising concerns at the highest levels in Washington, even as U.S. agencies and defense contractors have become the biggest buyers of such products. White House cybersecurity policy coordinator Michael Daniel said the trend was "very worrisome to us." Asked if U.S. government buying in the offensive market was adding to the problem, Daniel said more study was needed. "There is a lot more work to be done in that space to look at the economic questions... ...

By Joseph Menn WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even as the U.S. government confronts rival powers over widespread Internet espionage, it has become the biggest buyer in a burgeoning gray market where hackers and security firms sell tools for breaking into computers. The strategy is spurring concern in the technology industry and intelligence community that Washington is in effect encouraging hacking and failing to disclose to software companies and customers the vulnerabilities exploited by the purchased hacks. That's because U.S. ...

DHAKA (Reuters) - A woman was rescued on Friday after spending 17 days trapped under the rubble of a Bangladesh factory building that collapsed on April 24, killing more than 1,000 people, police and military officials said. Bangladeshi television channels broadcast live footage of emergency service workers pulling the woman from the collapsed building, as onlookers burst into cheers. The woman, identified by Bangladeshi media only as Reshma, was shown being carried on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance as a rescue worker applied an oxygen mask to her face. ...

SYDNEY (AP) — The moon glided between the Earth and sun, blocking everything but a dazzling ring of light, for the few skygazers lucky enough to see Friday's "ring of fire" eclipse in northern Australia and the South Pacific.

DHAKA (Reuters) - The death toll from the catastrophic collapse of a Bangladesh factory building, the world's worst industrial accident since the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984, climbed above 1,000 and more bodies might still be trapped inside as rescuers struggle to end the salvage operation. More than two weeks after the accident, bodies were still being pulled from the rubble of the Rana Plaza complex, and on Friday a spokesman at the army control room coordinating the operation said the number of people confirmed to have been killed had reached 1,038. ...

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Newspapers in Liberia have printed black front pages after a government official was accused of threatening journalists.

TOKYO (AP) — The dollar soared above 100 yen for the first time in more than four years Friday, driven by aggressive credit-easing aimed at reviving Japan's sluggish economy and improved U.S. economic figures.

By Pascal Fletcher JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - After years of headlines about Africa's poverty, its emerging middle class is now grabbing attention as a driver of growth and democracy and an expanding pool of consumers for market-hungry retailers. Consumer demand is a motor of Africa's economic and investment surge, and analysts see middle class buyers with swelling disposable income as fuelling this boom from South Africa to Nigeria and Kenya. ...

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Rescue workers in Bangladesh said Friday they found a female survivor buried amid the wreckage of a garment factory building that collapsed 17 days ago and killed more than 1,000.

SYDNEY (AP) — Police have called off the search for two Australian passengers two days after they were lost overboard from a Carnival Corp. cruise ship off the Australian east coast.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A bomb exploded outside a police station in Benghazi around 4am (0200 GMT) on Friday, damaging the building and shattering the windows of a school opposite but causing no injuries, a police official said. Police stations have been bombed at least three times in the past month in the eastern city of Benghazi, the second largest in Libya.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Two popes are praying together at the Vatican, one Catholic and one Orthodox.

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States must not delay raising its debt ceiling as ensuing uncertainty would hurt both the U.S. and the global economy, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said in an interview on CNBC television on Friday. "Congress should deal with this right away. The fact that they have more time should not put off dealing with this," he said. "I don't think that it's in the interests of the U.S. or the world economy for Congress to wait until the last minute and create a sense of anxiety. Congress has to raise the debt limit. ...

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Rescue workers in Bangladesh say they may have found a survivor buried amid the wreckage of a garment factory building that collapsed 17 days ago.

BERLIN (AP) — The German government says U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Germany to hold talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel and other officials next month.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Anglo American Platinum said on Friday it would announce the details of its revised plan to turn around its struggling South African operations at midday South African time (1000 GMT).

LONDON (AP) — The lawyer for Abu Qatada says he will voluntarily leave Britain, which has been trying to deport the radical Muslim preacher for more than a decade, and go to Jordan if a new treaty on torture is ratified there.

LONDON (AP) — The London Zoo is urgently seeking a female mate for the last-known males of a critically endangered fish species.

By Nishant Kumar and Elzio Barreto HONG KONG (Reuters) - As central banks print cash to boost moribund economies, investors in Asia wanting to hedge against rising prices are dumping gold and doubling down on property. They are driven by the search for yield as surprisingly benign inflation dims the appeal of bullion, but it's a risky play given lofty valuations for real estate. The trend is most visible in the frenzy around real estate investment trusts (REITs) in Asia, where issuance ex-Japan more than quadrupled to $4. ...