By Roberto Ramirez MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexicans angry over a spike in gasoline prices took to the streets of Mexico City on Saturday after days of protests spurred looting in hundreds of stores, resulting in over a thousand arrests in Latin America's second-largest economy.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Saturday an agreement had been reached with Turkey over an Iraqi demand that Turkish forces withdraw from the Bashiqa camp near Mosul in the north of the country, Iraqi state TV reported.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A fuel truck exploded in the busy center of a rebel-held town near Syria's border with Turkey on Saturday, killing dozens of people and wounding dozens more, several sources said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 48 people, mostly civilians, were killed when the tanker blew up in front of a courthouse in the northern Syrian town of Azaz.

By Stephen Kalin and Ahmed Rasheed MOSUL, Iraq/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi special forces closed in on the Tigris river that runs through central Mosul on Saturday, advancing in parallel with other troops and forcing Islamic State to retreat in its last major stronghold in the country.

By Joe Brock JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The chances of South African President Jacob Zuma's ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, becoming the next leader of the African National Congress were given a boost on Saturday with the endorsement of the ruling party's women's division.

By Ange Aboa BOUAKE, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - Rogue soldiers allowed Ivory Coast's defence minister and dozens of others to leave a house where they had been trapped on Saturday when some mutineers appeared to reject aspects of a deal intended to end a two-day revolt, a Reuters witness said.

By Mike Stone and Ginger Gibson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Haley Barbour, former Republican Party leader and Mississippi governor, has been hired by the Ukrainian government to lobby U.S. politicians, according to documents filed this week. The hiring of Barbour and his lobbying firm BGR Group comes at a time when U.S.

By Ange Aboa and Loucoumane Coulibaly BOUAKE, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - Disgruntled soldiers demanding salary increases and the payment of bonuses seized control of Ivory Coast's second-largest city, Bouake, on Friday, in an uprising that spread to at least two other cities.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Chinese-American nuclear engineer pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiring to produce "special nuclear material" in China in violation of the U.S. Atomic Energy Act, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Israel said on Friday it would cut $6 million in funding to the United Nations in 2017 in protest against a U.N. Security Council resolution that demanded an end to Israeli settlement building on land Palestinians want for an independent state.