AUSTRALIA
PERTH -- Leaving flooding and tens of millions of dollars in damage in its wake, powerful cyclone Vance drove inland Tuesday from Australia's northwest coast toward a major gold mining region. A man who had been presumed dead after refusing to evacuate from near where the storm hit shore has been found safe.
SAUDI ARABIA
MECCA -- At least one million animals, mainly sheep, are destined for slaughter at this week's Muslim pilgrimage and the meat will be donated to the poor in Muslim countries around the world.
GERMANY
HAMBURG -- The government deported American neo-Nazi Gary Lauck to the United States, days after he completed a four-year sentence for distributing hate propaganda.
JAPAN
TOKYO -- The impotency drug Viagra went on sale legally, two months after government health officials approved the drug in record time.
TOKYO -- Maritime authorities said they had fired warning shots at two unidentified ships that had entered Japanese waters on Tuesday and then fled.
MALAYSIA
KUALA LUMPUR -- The trial of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim came to a bitter close Tuesday as defense lawyers refused to make closing arguments before a judge they accused of bias. The judge in turn threatened them with contempt of court. A verdict on four charges in the sensational sex and corruption trial will be given April 6.
SOUTH AFRICA
DELMAS -- A judge gave a suspended sentence to a white farmer for firing a shot that killed a black baby in a freak ricochet, provoking outrage from the baby's mother and protesters.
PHILIPPINES
MANILA -- China and the Philippines failed to resolve their quarrel over Chinese structures in the disputed Spratly Islands, and Manila said it might take the issue to the United Nations.
TURKEY
ANKARA -- Police say they have arrested three people in a firebomb attack 10 days ago on an Istanbul store that killed 13 people.
TOGO
LOME -- The ruling party predictably swept the board in Sunday's parliamentary elections, winning all but one of the 66 seats declared in the 81-member parliament, according to latest results.
INDIA
NEW DELHI -- Senior officials said there was a dangerous complacency in government departments and state enterprises on the millennium bug, and the problem must be addressed on a war footing.
CYPRUS
NICOSIA -- The nation's chief game warden was killed when a bomb ripped through his booby-trapped car on a busy street in the coastal town of Limassol.
ENGLAND
LONDON -- Millennium fever has helped boost champagne exports to Britain, the world's biggest market for French bubbly, to a new high, the industry said.
GERMANY
BONN -- Thousands of hospital workers staged protests to head off changes in work conditions being sought by the government, the OeTV public sector union said.
THAILAND
BANGKOK -- The government's latest agreement with the IMF will kickstart the economy but the government should get more involved in recapitalizing ailing banks, analysts said.