Cambodia
PHNOM PENH — Political opponents and human rights activists are complaining that a U.N.-backed tribunal to try former Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide will fall short of international standards of justice. The tribunal was created Friday, when Cambodia and the United Nations signed an agreement to bring aging Khmer Rouge leaders to face charges.
Congo
BUNIA — Tribal fighters clashed in bloody street battles on Saturday in full view of U.N. peacekeepers in Bunia in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as a power struggle erupted days before a multi-national force will arrive with orders to bring security to this embattled town. The fighting trapped some 200 United Nations aid workers, peacekeepers and foreign journalists for several hours inside a U.N. compound.
Egypt
CAIRO — Retired Gen. Mohamed Abdel Ghani al-Gamasy, who served as Egypt's army chief of operations during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and then led his country's delegation to the truce table, died Saturday after a long illness. He was 81. He had suffered several strokes and underwent open heart surgery in his later years.
India
HYDERABAD — Thirty-six more deaths were reported Friday in the worst-affected southern state of Andhra Pradesh in India, raising its toll from heat in the past three weeks to 1,317, State Relief Commissioner D.C. Roshaiah said. Rains cooled parts of India scorched by a heat wave, but the death toll from the hot weather still rose to at least 1,438, officials said Saturday.
Indonesia
JAKARTA — Indonesian prosecutors told a human rights court on Thursday that one of the nation's most senior military officers was not guilty of crimes against humanity during the violence that engulfed East Timor four years ago, and they asked that he be acquitted of all charges.
Japan
TOKYO — The leaders of Japan and South Korea called Saturday for their nations to be included in talks to defuse the North Korean nuclear standoff, calling it "a serious threat" to regional peace. Diplomats from Japan and South Korea have been sidelined from negotiations as North Korea insists on dealing directly with the United States.
Myanmar
YANGON — A special U.N. envoy failed Saturday to meet or secure the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, despite international criticism of her detention and U.S. threats of tighter economic sanctions against Myanmar's ruling junta. Envoy Razali Ismail, on the second day of his five-day mission, said he was still pressing generals who secreted Suu Kyi to an unknown location following a bloody clash in northern Myanmar nine days ago.
Pakistan
ISLAMABAD— Ignoring the deafening screams and taunts of irate opposition lawmakers, Pakistan's finance minister presented the national budget Saturday in a striking exhibition of the constitutional crisis gripping this crucial U.S. ally. Opposition parties — angered over President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's dual role as civilian president and commander of the armed forces — have refused to debate a single bill and instead harassed speakers and staged mass walkouts.
Russia
VLADIKAVKAZ — Russian troops and Chechen police battled for a second day with rebels in an eastern Chechen town Saturday in fighting that killed at least 20 people, even as an amnesty offer to rebels came into effect. The amnesty offers immunity from prosecution to rebels who give up their weapons by Sept. 1.
Saudi Arabia
RIYADH — For the first time, the Saudi interior minister linked last month's Riyadh bombings to the al-Qaida terror network in an interview published Saturday, and his ministry identified 12 of the attackers. Prince Nayef said 25 people so far are in custody in connection with the May 12 bombings in which 35 people were killed, including nine suicide bombers.
Turkey
ISTANBUL — A passenger bus slammed into a wall at the entrance of a tunnel in eastern Turkey on Saturday, killing 27 people and injuring 33, media reports said. No skid marks were found at the scene of the crash, outside the city of Erzincan, about 430 miles east of the capital Ankara. Authorities suspect the bus driver may have fallen asleep, the Anatolia news agency reported.