World datelines

Afghanistan

KABUL — Militants released a video Sunday showing three frightened foreign U.N. hostages pleading for their release and threatened to kill them unless United Nations and British troops leave Afghanistan and Muslim prisoners are freed from U.S. jails.

Brazil

SAO PAULO — A former presidential contender and health minister cruised to victory Sunday in a runoff mayoral race for the helm of one of Latin America's largest cities, handing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's Workers Party a major disappointment in a traditional stronghold. Jose Serra, who lost to Silva in the presidential election two years ago, had 55 percent support compared to 45 percent for incumbent Mayor Marta Suplicy of Silva's Workers Party, with 95 percent of the vote counted in the city, a traditional Workers Party stronghold. Suplicy then conceded.

China

BEIJING — A burst of poisonous gas in a coal mine in northeast China killed 15 miners, the government said, days after the death toll in another accident rose to 141.

Germany

BERLIN — Fifteen years after the destruction of the Berlin Wall, a museum in the German capital unveiled a rebuilt segment of the Cold War barrier Sunday, defying criticism that the structure uses a painful piece of German history to create a tourist trap.

Japan

TOKYO — Two moderate earthquakes rattled an area in northern Japan still recovering from last month's magnitude 6.8 earthquake, the Meteorological Agency said today. No injuries were reported. A magnitude 5.0 jolt struck at 4:50 a.m., followed by a magnitude 4.0 temblor about an hour later, the agency said.

Jordan

AMMAN — Jordan's military court convicted a Jordanian businessman of raising funds to help terror mastermind Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi carry out attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq but acquitted him of conspiring in the actual attacks. Bilal al-Hiyari, 34, was sentenced to six months in jail.

Liberia

MONROVIA — Armed U.N. troops arrested dozens of men Sunday in an sometimes bloody conclusion to a countrywide disarmament program, days after a fresh burst of violence in the war-battered West African nation.

Malaysia