Sweden
STOCKHOLM - Police were pursuing a man Wednesday who tried to rob a post office dressed in a yellow chicken suit. The robber, wielding a baseball bat, failed to steal any money from the post office in Kalmar, southern Sweden. However, the attacker smashed windows and seriously upset a cashier.
England
LONDON - Liz Seymour knew when she returned from vacation that her bank account might be slightly overdrawn. But she was horrified to find a letter from the TSB bank demanding immediate repayment of 121 billion pounds ($206 billion), more than a third of the national debt. A TSB spokesman apologized for the letter, saying an administrative error had been to blame.
South Africa
PRETORIA - Nearly all 400 delegates of the Dutch Reformed Church's national meet-ing approved a resolution denouncing apartheid as "sinful." The church had in the past told its members that the Bible ordained white minority rule.
Mexico
TIJUANA - Six people were shot to death and another wounded Tuesday in what police said appeared to be a random attack in a border region notorious for drug-related violence. Two suspects were arrested and police were search-ing for two other men. One of the suspects told investigators they killed "because we wanted to."
Colombia
BOGOTA - Police turned water cannons on striking state employees Tuesday and unions threatened to paralyze Colombia's capital with massive demonstrations as a nationwide walkout entered its sixth day.
Philippines
MANILA - President Joseph Estrada has signed an amnesty designed to integrate about 2,000 former rebel soldiers and policemen into the armed forces. The rebels were among an estimated 6,000 soldiers and policemen involved in six failed coup attempts between 1986 and 1989 against then-President Corazon Aquino.
India
HYDERABAD - At least 20 people have died in heavy rains that lashed the southern state of Andhra Pradesh for the third day consecutive day Wednesday.
Myanmar
YANGON - The government said Wednesday it had freed 10 more members of the opposition National League for Democracy party. The NLD has said hundreds of its members have been detained in recent weeks and remain in custody since the party vowed to set up a rival parliament.
Algeria
ALGIERS - Troops backed by helicopter gunships have killed at least 20 rebels in a five-day offensive against an Islamic stronghold in northern Algeria, local newpapers reported Wednesday.
China
BEIJING - Soldiers in Yunnan have begun this year's second round of minesweeping along the Vietnamese border, the Liberation Army Daily said Wednesday. The clean-up of mines leftover from the two communist neighbors' brief but bitter border war in 1979 began this month and aimed to clear 16.8 sqare miles.
Nigeria
LAGOS - At least 73 people died when an overloaded boat cap-sized in Nigeria's northern Kaduna State.
Turkey
VAN - Turkish troops have killed 42 Kurdish rebels near this southeastern city in clashes over the past two days, the Anatolia news agency reported Wednesday.