AP - A Dutch shipping company negotiated with Somali pirates Tuesday, seeking the release of nine crew members on a freighter that was hijacked in the latest attack on merchant shipping off the coast of Somalia.

Reuters - Singapore politicians hurled insults
and clashed over transparency in the city-state in a court case
on Tuesday.

AP - A roadside bomb hit a bus Tuesday in western Afghanistan, killing eight civilians, while another roadside bomb south of the capital left four Afghan police dead, officials said.

AP - Myanmar’s military junta extended opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention by one year Tuesday, ignoring worldwide appeals to free the Nobel laureate who has been detained for more than 12 of the past 18 years.

AP - Myanmar’s military government has renewed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention by one year.

AP - Chinese officials rushed Tuesday to evacuate another 80,000 people in the path of potential floodwaters building up behind a quake-spawned dam as soldiers carved a channel to try to drain away the threat.

AP - An American businessman who is key to a corruption probe of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told prosecutors Tuesday he handed Oldmert cash-stuffed envelopes and suspected some of the money went to fund Olmert’s expensive tastes.

AFP - A month before a presidential election run-off, Zimbabwe’s opposition said Tuesday conditions were not conducive for a free and fair poll but still expressed confidence it would oust Robert Mugabe.

AP - Police fanned out across Nepal’s capital Tuesday as a new assembly that is widely expected to abolish the country’s 239-year-old monarchy was sworn in.

AP - Former army chief Luciano Benjamin Menendez faces charges of kidnapping, torturing and killing left-wing militants during Argentina’s 1976-83 military dictatorship.