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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Insurgent attacks in eastern Afghanistan rose by 40 percent in the first five months of this year over the same period a year ago, the U.S. commander of NATO forces in the region said on Tuesday.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican defended the late archbishop Paul Marcinkus, the head of the Vatican Bank whose tenure was marred by financial scandal, from media reports on Tuesday that he ordered the killing of a 15-year-old girl in 1983.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - A Canadian software developer designed a remote bomb detonator he called the "hi-fi digimonster" to be used in planned attacks in the United Kingdom, an Ottawa court heard on Monday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate was expected to approve as soon as Wednesday the biggest government program yet to tackle a deep housing market slump feared to be dragging the economy into recession.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York's Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said on Tuesday his surprising decision not to seek re-election had nothing to do with a federal probe of his business ties.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's president on Tuesday urged people angry at a U.S. beef import deal to lay down protest banners and give new quarantine checks on the products a chance, vowing to crack down on violent street rallies.

ABUJA (Reuters) - A senior U.N. official appointed by Nigeria to help end unrest in the oil-producing Niger Delta said on Tuesday he would seek a 90-day truce with militants as a first step towards formal peace talks.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, will not visit South Korea during a July trip to Japan for the Group of Eight summit, the White House said on Tuesday, after violent protests in Seoul over a U.S.-South Korean beef deal.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired several rockets into Israel on Tuesday, breaching a five-day-old ceasefire after Israeli troops killed a Palestinian militant leader in the occupied West Bank.

GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - A powerful separatist group in India's restive northeast suffered a blow when half a dozen of its senior commanders decided to shun violence and declared a ceasefire, officials said on Tuesday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Tibet will be reopened to foreign tourists from Wednesday, China's official Xinhua news agency said, after the region was shut off to foreign visitors following riots there in March.

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. and European negotiators have been given more time for World Trade Organisation-brokered talks to resolve a long-running clash over bananas, Geneva trade diplomats said on Tuesday.

YUMA, Arizona (Reuters) - Mexican migrant worker Fidel Castaneda hunkers down, brushes the sweat from his eyes and moves swiftly along the sun-blasted row cutting vines as the temperatures rises to 111 Fahrenheit (44 C).

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union on Tuesday hailed an agreement between Serbia's Socialist and Democratic parties as a real chance to establish a pro-European government in the Balkan country.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A bomb killed 10 people including two U.S. government employees and two U.S. soldiers at a council meeting in the Baghdad stronghold of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Tuesday, officials said.

KABUL (Reuters) - Pakistan must stop militants crossing the border to attack targets in Afghanistan, otherwise the Kabul government will take action, Afghanistan's presidential spokesman said on Tuesday.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Prosecutors sought on Tuesday to get the first trial of the International Criminal Court back on track after judges suspended the case against a suspected Congolese militia leader in a blow to the new tribunal.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Tuesday new sanctions imposed on it by the European Union over its nuclear plans could hurt diplomatic efforts to resolve the row.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said on Tuesday that Germany planned to increase the number of troops it can send to Afghanistan by 1,000 later this year.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's government and its communist allies meet on Wednesday over a civilian nuclear deal with the United States, in talks that could decide if the controversial energy pact or the ruling coalition survives.