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SEOUL, South Korea - The two Koreas briefly exchanged naval fire Tuesday along their disputed western sea border, with a North Korean ship suffering heavy damage before retreating, South Korean military officials said.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran accused three detained Americans of spying Monday, signaling Tehran intends to put them on trial. It drew a sharp U.S. response that the charges are baseless because the hikers strayed across the border from Iraq.

'Tear Down This Wall': Reagan's Speech That Ended the Cold War

NAIROBI, Kenya - Somali pirates attacked an oil tanker and fired automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades Monday farther out at sea than any previous assault, suggesting that pirate capabilities are growing as they increase activity off East Africa.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri formed a new unity government on Monday that includes two ministers from Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

BEIJING - China has executed nine men, including eight from the Muslim Uighur minority, for crimes committed during July riots that killed 200 people in far western Xinjiang region. The men are the first to be put to death for the country's worst ethnic violence in decades.

COMBAT OUTPOST ROCCO, Afghanistan - Shortly before nightfall, an Afghan farmer slipped into this NATO outpost with a bag of ammunition and gear he'd collected from nearby Taliban positions. It turned out not to be much: pieces of 82-millimeter mortar guns and some combat food rations.

BERLIN - Ulrich Sauff and his wife stared at the mammoth domino pieces marking the path where the Berlin Wall once stood and reminisced about life in the barrier's shadow.

SINGAPORE - Oil prices fell below $79 a barrel Tuesday in Asia as a storm threatening oil installations in the Gulf of Mexico weakened and investors eyed a volatile dollar.

JERUSALEM - The chief Palestinian negotiator on Monday warned Israel that if it does not take peacemaking seriously, it will find itself dealing with the militant Hamas instead of moderates like him.

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela and Russia say they are working on a series of agreements for Moscow to provide the South American country with technology for the development of industries ranging from robotics to biochemistry.

TOKYO - President Barack Obama says he wants to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki sometime during his presidency but won't have time during this week's trip to Japan to go to the cities devastated by U.S. atomic bombs at the end of World War II.

KABUL - Afghan and international troops killed more than 130 insurgents in six days of fighting in a once-stable area of northern Afghanistan that has seen a recent spike in Taliban attacks, NATO said Monday. It was some of the heaviest fighting in the north this year.

RATHGAMA, Sri Lanka (AFP) - Raj Rajaratnam, a billionaire financier facing insider trading charges in the United States, is recalled in stone in one of the villages he helped recover from the Asian tsunami in 2004.

TOKYO - Japan said Tuesday it plans to provide up to $5 billion in aid to Afghanistan, effectively replacing its naval refueling mission that supports U.S.-led coalition in the region in a commitment announced days ahead of President Barack Obama's visit.

MONTERREY, Mexico - When soldiers tried to halt a suspicious-looking SUV that was being escorted through Monterrey by a state policeman, the officer radioed for backup. In minutes, police from 40 patrol cars surrounded the troops, drawing their guns and sending the soldiers diving for cover in an hour-long standoff.

TOKYO - The deepening debate over the future of a major U.S. Marine base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa has opened a broad rift in Washington's most important alliance in Asia ahead of President Barack Obama's visit to the region this week.

SAO PAULO - A woman expelled for wearing a mini-dress that caused a near riot at a Brazilian college and made her an Internet sensation said all she wants is to go back to school. Well, she got her way.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said on Monday he was "very close" to reaching a peace agreement with Israel before a new right-wing government assumed power at the end of March.

NEW DELHI - A landslide triggered by torrential seasonal rains swept through a hilly region in southern India, killing at least 39 people, an official said Tuesday.

SEOUL (Reuters) - North and South Korea have had a naval skirmish in Yellow Sea waters off their west coast, the South's Yonhap news agency reported on Tuesday.

BEIJING - Days after coming to power in September, Japan's new prime minister broached forming a new East Asian trading bloc with rival China — one that would exclude the United States.

RIO DE JANEIRO - Dueling visits to Brazil by the presidents of Israel and Iran are showing the South American powerhouse's growing role in Mideast diplomacy.

CARACAS, Venezuela — A U.S.-brokered accord that was supposed to return ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to power has collapsed and his supporters pinned much of the blame Monday on the Obama administration.

Kenya launches an unprecedented campaign to survey the country's gay population about their sexual behaviors -- taking on a subject long met with hostility in the country.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AFP) - Fugitive former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra landed in the Cambodian capital Tuesday to carry out his new role as economics adviser to the government, an AFP photographer said.

MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Rock-throwing supporters of Nicaragua's governing Sandinista party have attacked a small protest march by the opposition.

SANAA (AFP) - Shiite rebels in northern Yemen caught between a deadly government onslaught and air raids from across the border on Monday alleged Saudi warplanes were using phosphorus bombs against them.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US efforts to revive the Middle East process floundered Tuesday with no progress reported after closed door talks between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

TOKYO (AFP) - US President Barack Obama is willing to visit the nuclear-bombed cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki while in office but won't go there during a Japan trip this week, he said in an NHK TV interview Tuesday.