China

BEIJING -- Dozens of people were injured and three arrested when 5,000 retired or laid-off workers clashed with police in northeast China during a protest over nonpayment of pensions and wages, a human rights group said Tuesday.

Nepal

KATMANDU -- Taking advantage of a break in snowy weather, climbers from Britain, Spain, South Korea and Nepal on Tuesday became the first mountaineers to summit Mount Everest this year, the Nepalese Ministry of Tourism said.

Germany

BERLIN -- A former East German politician on trial for shooting deaths at the Berlin Wall testified Tuesday that he proposed opening the barrier in 1984, five years before it fell.

Herbert Haeber, 69, said hard-liners forced him out of his post in the communist regime in 1985 after he presented the plan, which was quashed by Soviet officials.

Turkey

ANKARA -- Reform-minded judge Ahmet Necdet Sezer was sworn in as Turkey's 10th president Tuesday, raising expectations the country will push forward in efforts to broaden democracy and increase personal liberties.

Sri Lanka

COLOMBO -- Sri Lanka said on Tuesday that emergency purchases of arms to fight Tamil Tiger rebels in the north of the country would lift this year's defense budget to $880 million from around $700 million.

Russia

MOSCOW -- A truck carrying Russian troops was attacked in southeastern Chechnya on Tuesday in the latest in a series of rebel ambushes, a spokesman said.

Thailand

BANGKOK -- About 2,000 cane growers protested peacefully outside the weekly Cabinet meeting Tuesday to demand $142 million in government assistance to offset low prices.

Kenya

NAIROBI -- An elite Kenyan police squad set up to fight violent crime has been disbanded after its officers were implicated in carjackings, theft, torture and execution, a local newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Dominican Republic

SANTO DOMINGO -- The Dominican Republic held a presidential election Tuesday that will set a course for how the Caribbean nation maintains a fast-growing economy while trying to reduce poverty.

Burundi

BUJUMBURA -- At least four people were killed in fighting between Burundi's army and Hutu rebels on the outskirts of the capital Bujumbura on Monday, witnesses said.

Colombia

BOGOTA -- A court has given a U.S. oil company approval to drill near South American Indian lands, overturning an earlier suspension brought after protests from a local tribe.

The decision Monday by the Superior Court of Bogota was a victory for Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. and the Colombian government, which is courting investment in its sagging oil industry.

Ecuador

QUITO -- About a million students found school doors shut Monday after some 140,000 public school teachers started a national strike to demand a pay increase.

Egypt

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CAIRO -- Prosecutors charged a contractor with wrongful death and violation of building regulations in the collapse of an apartment building that killed 16 people, police officials said Monday.

Cambodia

PHNOM PENH -- The last American soldiers killed in the Vietnam War were quietly remembered during a ceremony here.

The service held by the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh in honor of 18 servicemen killed in the Mayaguez Incident contrasted with fanfare marking the April 30 anniversary of the fall of Saigon.

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