AFP - A leading Moroccan rights organisation said Tuesday that "slight" improvements in the country's record over 2007 were outweighed by a heavy police crackdown earlier this month.

AP - Countries at an international conference Tuesday agreed to commit $242 million to strengthen the Palestinian Authority's police and judicial systems, sending what Germany's foreign minister called a "clear signal of support" for building a Palestinian state.

AFP - Finnish mobile telephone giant Nokia said on Tuesday it will take full control of Symbian, a London-based software group, buying out the other shareholders for 264 million euros.

AP - An Israeli police officer fatally shot himself in the head at an airport farewell ceremony Tuesday for French President Nicolas Sarkozy, prompting bodyguards to whisk the visiting leader and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to safety, officials said.

AP - A coast guard diver searching for survivors Tuesday inside a ferry that capsized in a typhoon found bodies and a bit of comfort — a plastic rosary floating in the water.

AP - A bomb struck a district council building Tuesday in Baghdad's Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City, killing at least nine people, including four Americans — two soldiers and two government employees, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

AP - Palestinian militants on Tuesday fired three homemade rockets into southern Israel, the first such attack since a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza militants took effect last week.

AP - Dozens of scared children filed silently into the bare room, their eyes on the cracks in the floor.

AFP - British energy giant BG Group on Tuesday launched a hostile 6.6-billion-pound (13.8-billion Australian dollar) bid for Origin Energy, which if successful, would be one of the biggest foreign takeovers of an Australian firm.

AFP - Thailand's opposition began grilling Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej in a no-confidence debate on Tuesday, as his four-month-old government faces claims of mismanagement and cronyism.

Reuters - The U.N. Security Council has for the first time unanimously condemned violence against opposition supporters in Zimbabwe and said a free and fair presidential election is impossible now.

AP - President Michelle Bachelet pushed to permanently ban whaling along Chile's sprawling coast at the opening Monday of the weeklong International Whaling Commission meeting.

AP - Afghan officials say an airstrike has killed more than a dozen militants in the east of the country.

AFP - Baosteel, China's largest steelmaker, said Tuesday it had agreed to nearly double what it pays Anglo-Australian mining group Rio Tinto for iron ore.