TURKEY
AFYON -- A Turkish court sentenced six policemen to more than seven years in jail for beating a journalist to death. Metin Goktepe, 32, died of a brain haemorrhage after sustaining repeated truncheon blows to the head while in police custody in Istanbul in 1996.
GERMANY
HAMBURG -- Seven lesbian and gay couples registered as long-term partners with the city of Hamburg, the first to take advantage of an unprecedented law in Germany offering symbolic recognition for same-sex couples.
IRAN
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- A former mayor of Tehran, Gholamhossein Karbaschi, was sent to prison to serve a two-year sentence for corruption, Tehran radio reported.
SPAIN
MADRID -- A prosecutor has filed an appeal in national court challenging a Spanish judge's torture case against former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
BRITAIN
LONDON -- Britain's Home Office said it had again turned down an application for British citizenship by Harrods department store owner Mohamed Al Fayed.
JAPAN
TOKYO -- A former executive of the insolvent Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan under investigation by the government was found hanged in his Tokyo hotel room, police said.
CANADA
TORONTO -- Ontario voters will get a chance June 3 to pass judgment on the administration of Canada's most populous province after four years of sharp cuts in taxes and spending on education, health and welfare.
SOUTH KOREA
SEOUL -- North Korea is accusing South Korea of using China as a base to train guerrillas for an armed revolt and terrorism in its territory.
INDIA
NEW DELHI -- Thirty-three people were feared drowned after a state-owned bus crashed through a bridge railing and plunged into a river in eastern India, a news agency reported.
RUSSIA
MOSCOW -- Three rescuers who went looking for four students missing in a cave in central Russia have been found dead, suffocating from the same bonfire smoke that killed the students.
MEXICO
MEXICO CITY -- Carlos Fuentes Lemus, a photographer and the son of Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, died Wednesday at age 25.
SAUDI ARABIA
RIYADH -- The government is considering doubling the cost of permits that foreigners need to work in the kingdom, a government official said, in a move seen aimed at generating more revenue to offset low oil prices.
YEMEN
ADEN -- Prosecutors of eight British citizens accused of terrorism in Yemen told the court that some of the men admitted to links with a Yemeni man sentenced to die for his part in the killing of four Western tourists.
ISRAEL
JERUSALEM -- Israeli farmers are refusing to comply with state-ordered water cutbacks in a year of drought, prompting warnings of severe water shortages in the summer.
GREECE
PIRAEUS -- Three rockets launched against foreign banks in the port of Piraeus wrecked a Chase Manhattan branch and two more banks suffered minor damage, but no one was hurt, police said.