Afghanistan
KANDAHAR — The U.S.-led coalition said its troops killed 18 suspected insurgents when about 60 militants attacked with heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in Cahar Cineh district of the southern Uruzgan province on Monday. No coalition troops were injured.
Britain
LONDON — British anti-terrorist police charged three more people late Tuesday with conspiring to commit murder in the alleged plot to blow up U.S.-bound airliners.
Gaza Strip
GAZA CITY — Some 300 unemployed Palestinian laborers surrounded the parliament building Tuesday, demanding welfare payments, scuffling with police and waving empty plates in another challenge to the beleaguered Hamas-led government. Elsewhere in Gaza, Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinians — at least one of them a militant — and wounded five others, including a 4-year-old boy. In the northern West Bank, troops killed two Palestinian militants in a firefight.
Guatemala
GUATEMALA CITY — Gunmen opened fire with assault rifles in a Guatemala pool hall, killing eight people including a 17-year-old boy, officials said Tuesday. Police said they did not know of a motive, but were investigating whether the attack was related to gang activity.
GUATEMALA CITY — The Guatemalan government announced Tuesday that it had suspended some constitutional rights in five cities along Mexico's border as it cracks down on drug growers and traffickers in the remote region.
Iran
TEHRAN — Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday challenged President Bush to a televised debate, a proposal the White House immediately dismissed as a "diversion." The challenge came during a freewheeling, 2 1/2-hour news conference and only two days before a U.N. Security Council ultimatum demanding Iran roll back its suspect nuclear program.
Israel
JERUSALEM — U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Israel's air and sea blockade of Lebanon a "humiliation" Tuesday and demanded it be lifted. But Israel said it first needed assurances that forces deployed on the border can stop weapons shipments to Hezbollah. The dispute was the latest threat to the fragile cease-fire that ended 34 days of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.
Mexico
ACAPULCO — Hurricane John's outer bands lashed Mexico's western coast Tuesday night as the powerful Category 3 storm threatened to cause flooding and ruin vacations in some Pacific resorts.
Russia
GROZNY — About 50 former militants surrendered and handed over their weapons Tuesday in a ceremony led by Chechnya's powerful prime minister, who said rebel numbers were dwindling in the war-ravaged region, officials said.
Saudi Arabia
RIYADH — Saudi Arabian authorities have released nine men who were previously held at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as terror suspects, a Saudi security official said Tuesday.
Sudan
KHARTOUM — Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir accused the United States and Britain Tuesday of conspiring against his country as diplomats at the United Nations said Washington and ally London want the Security Council to adopt a resolution in two days giving the United Nations authority over peacekeepers in Darfur. Al-Bashir staunchly opposes the deployment of U.N. peacekeeping troops in the remote, western region to replace an African Union-led force there now.
Vietnam
HANOI — Hundreds of farmers camped out in front of a National Assembly building in the capital Tuesday in a rare protest of the seizure of their land for development, saying it threatens their livelihood.