North Korea: Officials
North Korea's main newspaper printed photographs and biographical details Tuesday of senior officials appointed a day earlier at a rare parliamentary session.
The brother-in-law of leader Kim Jong Il was promoted to a key position in the secretive nation's leadership and a new premier was named Monday.
North Koreans looked at the Rodong Sinmun newspaper on display stands in Pyongyang, according to exclusive footage from broadcaster APTN in Pyongyang. The front page featured a large photo of Kim Jong Il and other senior officials presiding over Monday's parliamentary session.
The reclusive Kim is believed to have suffered a stroke two years ago.
China: Shootings
BEIJING — China said Tuesday that a North Korean border guard shot and killed three people and wounded a fourth on the countries' border last week, prompting a formal complaint from Beijing.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said a North Korean border guard last Friday shot four Chinese residents from the northeastern border town of Dandong, apparently on suspicion that they were crossing the border for illegal trade. Qin said China has formally complained to North Korea over the incident.
Nigeria: Lead poisoning
GUSAU — Doctors are struggling to save children stricken by lead poisoning — many of them blind, deaf and unable to walk — after poor herdsmen began illegally mining gold in an area of northern Nigeria with high concentrations of lead.
More than 160 villagers have died and hundreds more have been sickened in the remote villages of Nigeria's Zamfara state, officials said Tuesday. The region is near the border with Niger, on the cusp of the Sahara Desert.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency's initial tests found extremely high levels of lead in the blood of adults and of children, who are the most susceptible to the illness.
Mexico: Rail theft
MEXICO CITY — Several midlevel managers with Mexico's state railroad company are accused of stealing more than 360 miles of railroad and selling the materials to help pay off a company debt, authorities said Tuesday.
The railroad scrap, much of it high-grade steel, weighed roughly 52,000 tons, about seven times the steel used in the Eiffel Tower, said Mexico's secretary of public administration, Salvador Vega Casillas. He said the sale of such material is prohibited and that the managers never sought permission for their actions.
Iran: No trade
TEHRAN — An Iranian official said Tuesday the country has no plans to swap three American prisoners for a missing nuclear scientist who Tehran claims was abducted by the U.S.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said it is not Iran's practice to "exchange people whose cases are still with the judiciary" and dismissed suggestions that the fate of the three Americans is linked to that of scientist Shahram Amiri.
Japan: New Cabinet
TOKYO — Japan's new prime minister named his Cabinet and vowed to tackle the country's burgeoning debt Tuesday, but analysts said with elections looming he will be hard pressed to hold his ground let alone carry out sweeping reforms.
Naoto Kan and the Democratic Party of Japan he now heads are hoping his image as a grass-roots reformer who understands the needs of average Japanese will restore public trust and shore up the party ahead of next month's elections for the upper house of parliament and amid souring relations with Washington over a U.S. military base.