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HONG KONG (Reuters) - Thousands in Hong Kong urged Beijing to grant it greater democracy on Tuesday, with a recent furor over newly appointed political aides stoking perceptions of the unelected government's lack of accountability.

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Trade, drugs and immigration will top the agenda of U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain during a visit to Colombia and Mexico this week designed to showcase his foreign policy experience over that of Democratic rival Barack Obama.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Three bombs exploded at an office of the International Organization of Migration (IOM) in east Nepal that helps Bhutanese refugees to settle in third countries, police and government officials said on Tuesday.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's prime minister said on Tuesday violent street rallies against a U.S. beef import deal are harming the country's international credibility and driving investors away.

PARIS (Reuters) - Polish President Lech Kaczynski compounded the problems facing the European Union on the first day of France's presidency of the bloc on Tuesday, saying he will not sign the Union's reform treaty for now.

TOKYO (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the Group of Eight rich nations on Tuesday to stick with a three-year old pledge to raise African aid levels to $25 billion a year, after a report the leaders may be about to backtrack.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said on Tuesday he was shelving plans to contest a parliamentary by-election due to a "political conspiracy" behind a young aide's accusation of homosexual assault.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali gunmen have kidnapped two local workers with an Italian charity in the latest attack on humanitarian staff in the Horn of Africa nation, locals and foreign aid sources said on Tuesday.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - The African Union called on Tuesday for a national unity government in Zimbabwe after the widely condemned re-election of President Robert Mugabe in a violent poll ruled unfair by monitors.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - World Youth Day in Sydney this month is the Catholic church's Woodstock, five days of love, peace and Christianity overseen by the Pope, but civil liberties leaders say police will be using "repugnant" anti-protest powers.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Two U.S. Congressmen on Tuesday urged President George W. Bush to rethink attending the Beijing Olympic Games after they were prevented from meeting Chinese human rights activists.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's prime minister said on Tuesday that violent street rallies against a U.S. beef import deal are harming the country's international credibility and driving investors away.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's main communist party said it would discuss the timing of withdrawal from the government over the civilian nuclear deal with the United States due to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's trip to a G8 summit.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq opened its giant oilfields to foreign firms on Monday, putting British and U.S. companies in pole position five years after U.S.-led troops invaded the country to oust Saddam Hussein.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China resumed fence-mending talks with envoys of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, on Tuesday in a move that could burnish its international image weeks before the Chinese capital hosts the Olympics.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Iraqi government sued dozens of companies, including oil giant Chevron Corp., for more than $10 billion on Monday, saying they paid kickbacks to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's government under the U.N. oil-for-food program.

INDEPENDENCE, Missouri (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama rejected questions about his patriotism on Monday even as he drew fire for a supporter's attack on Republican rival John McCain's military record.

PIPERSVILLE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain got a new campaign plane on Monday with one apparently unexpected surprise: his name is on the side.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Gold necklaces from India, an alloy from Brazil and 23 other developing country products will no longer receive U.S. duty-free treatment, the U.S. Trade Representative's office said on Monday.

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A Chilean judge on Monday added two life terms to the jail time of Augusto Pinochet's secret police chief for the murder of a former army chief and his wife in Argentina, the toughest penalty for dictatorship-era abuses to date.