Armenia: Victory protested
YEREVAN — Thousands of angry opposition supporters marched through Armenia's capital Wednesday to protest the prime minister's victory in the presidential election.
With Russia and an influential monitoring group signaling approval of Tuesday's election, though, it was unclear if the opposition could mount a serious challenge and force a new vote — or rally a mass uprising like those that lifted the opposition to power in Georgia and Ukraine.
The demonstrations and allegations of fraud raised concerns of instability in this volatile, strategic country at the juncture of the energy-rich Caspian Sea region and southern Europe.
Election officials said a final count showed Prime Minister Serge Sarkisian with nearly 53 percent of the vote — enough to win outright and avoid a runoff. His main opponent, Levon Ter-Petrosian, had 21.5 percent.
Brazil: Logging limits protested
RIO DE JANEIRO — A mob of 2,000 people burned tires, blocked roads and attacked federal agents who sought to crack down on illegal Amazon logging, but officials vowed Wednesday that riots would not halt law enforcement.
Brazil's Environmental Protection Agency abandoned efforts to audit logging companies and sawmills suspected of illegal logging on Tuesday after mobs surrounded its workers and tried to invade a sawmill in a "public revolt" in the Amazonian town of Tailandia, the agency said on its Web site.
Britain: MI6 role denied
LONDON — The former head of MI6 denied Wednesday that the British intelligence agency killed Princess Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, in 1997.
Sir Richard Dearlove, who was MI6's director of special operations at the time of Diana's Paris death, told a coroner's inquest that MI6 didn't assassinate anyone between 1994 and 1999, when he was director of special operations.
Assassination, he said, was contrary to government policy, and he was unaware of any such activity by the agency during his career.
He also denied that MI6 mounted any operations directed at her or Fayed, including surveillance or bugging, and took no particular interest in her campaign against land mines.
Dearlove also testified that an operation by rogue agents would have been "impossible."
Mexico: Religious leader dies
MEXICO CITY — Mexican police were sent to a religious community with thousands of members to maintain order after its reclusive leader died amid a bitter power struggle over who would succeed him, authorities said Wednesday.
Nabor Cardenas, a defrocked Catholic priest known as "Papa Nabor" and founder of the New Jerusalem religious community, died Tuesday of renal and respiratory problems, Michoacan's state government said in a statement.
Cardenas, 98, hadn't been seen in public since he fell ill in 2005.
South Korea: Official cleared
SEOUL — A special prosecutor cleared South Korean President-elect Lee Myung-bak of financial fraud allegations Thursday, allowing him to take office next week with his mandate untarnished.
The announcement ended a probe over suspicions that Lee colluded in a 2001 stock case, a controversy that plagued Lee throughout last year's campaign.