The former immigration chief who resigned last year in a row over border controls has reached an out-of-court settlement with the Home Office, his union said Friday.

Libya's government said Wednesday it is preparing to take over control of its border crossings and airports, including in Tripoli, from former rebels that fought to oust Moamer Kadhafi.

Hundreds of Syrian activists will gather Thursday in Turkey near the Syrian border to commemorate the first anniversary of the uprising against the Syrian regime, a protest organiser said Wednesday.

After an initial bid to run for re-election as self-styled saviour of the euro, Nicolas Sarkozy has launched a bid to shake up his lacklustre polling numbers with a surprise new eurosceptic stance.

Libyan militias who helped oust Moamer Kadhafi promised on Thursday to turn over to the interim government strategic sites, such as airports and border crossings, that they have held since capturing them in last year's uprising.

Israeli troops entered northern Gaza on Wednesday, briefly sealing the Erez border crossing between the Palestinian territory and Israel, Hamas officials said.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - The most senior Algerian official to visit Libya since its revolution promised on Monday that members of Muammar Gaddafi's family given refuge on Algerian soil will not be allowed to meddle in Libyan affairs.

(Reuters) - U.S. Border Patrol agents and Mexican drug traffickers fought a gun battle across the Rio Grande river in south Texas, authorities said on Friday, the latest of a spate of cross-border shootings in recent months.

Libya has called its neighbours to a meeting on their porous common borders, which since the downfall of Moamer Kadhafi have become major conduits for smuggling, an official said on Thursday.

The US Border Patrol recently ordered an investigation into allegations that its agents were mistreating illegal immigrants entering the United States, said Michael Fisher, the agency's chief.

The United States will increase repatriating undocumented Mexicans by air to take pressure off authorities in busy border crossing areas, according to visiting US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and wounded by a colleague following a workplace dispute was a high-level supervisor based in Southern California, a law enforcement official told Reuters on Friday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An immigration agent shot his boss six times during a performance discussion in the agency's offices in a Los Angeles suburb and was shot dead by another colleague, authorities said on Friday.

DOUGLAS, Arizona (Reuters) - U.S. authorities have upgraded six miles of border fencing in a remote Arizona ranching town with a taller barrier that will be tougher to breach, in the latest effort to tighten their grip on the isolated stretches of the Mexico border.

HONG KONG/TAIPEI (Reuters) - A Chinese technology firm seeking to ban all shipments of Apple's popular iPad tablet into and out of the country has been told that China's customs authorities are unlikely to intervene in the trademark battle.

Islamabad publicly admitted Tuesday that it had allowed NATO to use Pakistani airspace to fly supplies into Afghanistan, despite a more than two-month blockade on the border crossings.

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - U.S. Customs agents at ports of entry along the country's southern border are charged with searching cars and cargo for weapons, drugs, terrorists and smugglers.

(Reuters) - A pilot program that moves passengers through pre-flight security screening faster if they volunteer information about themselves in advance is set to expand to 28 of the nation's busiest airports, officials said on Wednesday.

Malaysia is installing scanners to detect bank notes at airports and border crossings to curb illegal money outflows believed to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars over the past decade.

RIO RICO, Ariz (Reuters) - Picking her way into the desert brush, Raquel Martinez gathered scores of plastic water bottles tossed in an Arizona desert valley near the Mexico border, often by migrants making a risky trek into the United States across increasingly remote terrain.