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New York - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon plans to visit Japan in late June for talks with government officials and business leaders in that country, a UN spokesperson said Friday.

Ban will be in Tokyo June 30 to July 2 to meet with the prime minister and foreign minister. He will hold a townhall debate with students of the Tokyo University.

His itinerary after Japan is still undecided, but a visit to Myanmar is a "possibility," said Michelle Montas.

Baghdad - The coach of the Iraqi national karate team was killed on Friday by gunmen in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, according to a police source.

The source told the German Press Agency dpa that the gunmen escaped right after they shot Ezzat Abdullah to death when he was near his house in al-Zohour district, eastern Mosul.

Mosul and its environs, roughly 400 kilometres north of Baghdad, is among the most ethnically and religiously diverse areas of Iraq.

Beirut - The Lebanese army on Friday accused Israel of violating the Lebanese border by establishing an observation post in a restricted area on the outskirts of the Kfarshouba hills.

"In clear violation of a restricted area of Lebanese territory, and in an attempt to impose a new reality on the ground, the Israeli enemy on Wednesday set up an observation post at the edge of Kfarshouba and a military position overlooking Baathaeel pond," a Lebanese army statement said.

Los Angeles - Kelly Preston, the wife of John Travolta, is returning to work for the first time since the death of their 16-year-old son Jett, according to the People. com website Friday.

Preston, 46, is starring in the coming-of-age film The Last Song, in which she plays the mother of Miley Cyrus's character.

The chronically ill Jett Travolta died in January at the family's vacation home in the Bahamas after suffering a seizure.

Santiago - Hortensia Bussi, the widow of the late Chilean president Salvador Allende, died at the age of 94 at her home in Santiago.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and former presidents Patricio Aylwin and Ricardo Lagos took part in the post-death vigil Friday.

Allende himself committed suicide during the military coup that brought dictator Augusto Pinochet to power in Chile in September 1973.

Algiers/Paris - Algerian authorities reported Friday that 19 people were killed in an attack on Algerian gendarmes on the two days prior.

The official Algerian news agency APS reported officials sources as saying the dead included 18 of the gendarmes who were escorting a group of Chinese workers and one civilian.

Security sources had initially spoke of 24 dead.

Six gendarmes and two civilians were injured in the attack by suspected Islamist terrorists.