World - McClatchy Newspapers

BEIRUT, Lebanon— With the beleaguered Lebanese army looking on, opposition and pro-government militias traded gunfire in northern Lebanon Monday in a continuation of the fighting that's killed at least 50 people and paralyzed most of Beirut.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil— Bolivian President Evo Morales, trying to ease a deepening political crisis, on Monday scheduled for Aug. 10 a sweeping recall referendum that would allow voters to cut short his term in office, as well as those of his vice president and the country's eight provincial governors.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan— A new political crisis engulfed Pakistan Monday after one of the two main parties in the coalition government pulled its ministers out of the cabinet.

JERUSALEM— President Bush sets off this week to celebrate Israel's 60th birthday, but the festivities are likely to be muted by the dimming prospects for brokering regional peace deals during the Republican administration's waning months in power.

BEIJING— A powerful earthquake rocked a region of southwest China Monday, killing more than 8,500 people, burying schoolchildren in collapsed classrooms and rattling high-rise buildings across much of East Asia.

WASHINGTON— Iranian-backed Hezbollah's seizure Friday of large swaths of Muslim Beirut in a blow against the U.S.-backed Lebanese government is the latest in a string of setbacks to U.S. allies in the Middle East and the latest bad news for President Bush from a region that he set out to remake five years ago.

BAGHDAD— Followers of rebel cleric Muqtada al Sadr agreed late Friday to allow Iraqi security forces to enter all of Baghdad's Sadr City and to arrest anyone found with heavy weapons in a surprising capitulation that seemed likely to be hailed as a major victory for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki.

BELGRADE, Serbia— Serbians head to the polls Sunday for crucial parliamentary elections, still bitterly divided between nationalist anger and tentative optimism about a European future.

BAGHDAD— Staff Sgt. Luis Falcon, 38, was patrolling the streets of Baqouba, north of Baghdad, when he saw Shahad Abbas. The 11-year-old girl was in a large decrepit wheelchair, and the stumps of her legs where her calves should have been were crusted with dried blood.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil— A Brazilian prosecutor has appealed the controversial acquittal of a rancher convicted last year for ordering the murder of U.S. nun Dorothy Stang in this country's Amazon forest, extending an emotional trial that's made world headlines.

FUYANG, China— It's rare that a physician would single-handedly play a crucial role in resolving two big health crises in China, saving untold scores of children's lives. But that's precisely the case with Dr. Liu Xiaolin.

JERUSALEM— Facing a deepening investigation that threatens his political career, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert late Thursday night held an unusual press conference on his nation's Independence Day to deny allegations that he accepted bribes from an American businessman.

BAGHDAD— Iraqi security forces, after more than of 40 days of intense fighting, on Thursday told residents to evacuate their homes in the northeast Shiite slum of Sadr City and to move to temporary shelters on two soccer fields.

BAGHDAD— When Ali Ateya was killed last month at the age of 23_ a victim of an American airstrike on a block of concrete tenements in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, according to his family— there was no money for his burial.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina— After more than a month of failed negotiations with government officials, thousands of farmers have re-created roadblocks and held back production all over this country to protest a controversial increase in agricultural export taxes.

ASUNCION, Paraguay— The sounds of heaven, plucked on 36 strings, fill the ramshackle houses and potholed streets of this sleepy capital.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico— The lights of the bullet-ridden sedan were still shining when the investigators arrived. Police Capt. Saul Pena Lopez had been rushed to the hospital by then, but the blood-soaked pavement suggested he wouldn't be there long.

NAIROBI, Kenya— To see the lingering effects of Kenya's recent post-election violence, combined with the worldwide increase in food prices, look no further than the size of the lunches served at Fatma Abdallah's small neighborhood restaurant in Nairobi's sprawling Majengo slum.

NAMCHE BAZAAR, Nepal— Trust me, it's not easy sharing a suspended cable bridge over a Himalayan gorge with a yak caravan. The bridge undulates and bucks, and one tends to freeze up and grasp the cable handrail.

JERUSALEM— In 2006, Israeli director Eytan Fox produced "The Bubble," a provocative film about young Tel Aviv roommates trying unsuccessfully to carve out a rewarding life for themselves as violent realities gradually close in on them.

BAGHDAD— After months of stalled talks between the United States and Iran, the Iraqi government said it was time for the two nations to stop trading accusations and come to the table.

JERUSALEM— Israeli jets flying in acrobatic formation soared over Jerusalem's ancient city walls on Tuesday as the nation geared up to celebrate its 60th anniversary later this week.

SANTA CRUZ DE LA SIERRA, Bolivia— Official election results released Monday showed a controversial statute that would grant autonomy to this country's richest province had built an overwhelming lead in Sunday's violence-marred referendum and was on its way to victory.

WASHINGTON— The deaths of two U.S. soldiers in western Baghdad last week have sparked concerns that Iraqi insurgents have developed a new weapon capable of striking what the U.S. military considers its most explosive-resistant vehicle.

BAGHDAD— There's a place in this city, amid the snarled checkpoints and mazes of blast walls and general anxiety, where families still gather for picnics, teenage boys kick around soccer balls, young couples canoodle furtively under trees and children bury their faces in cotton candy.

CHANGCHUN, China— Barely a decade ago, allegations that China juiced its top athletes flourished. After all, dozens tested positive in the 1990s, and when new anti-doping procedures arrived before the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, China suddenly decided to leave 40 athletes at home.

BEIJING— When some 11,000 athletes arrive in Beijing for the Summer Olympic Games in August, a few will be playing cat-and-mouse games to avoid random anti-drug tests.

SANTA CRUZ DE LA SIERRA, Bolivia— This divided country faces a constitutional crisis Sunday when its richest and second most-populous province votes whether to declare itself autonomous from President Evo Morales's national government, a referendum the president has called illegal.