World datelines

Afghanistan

KANDAHAR — Suspected Taliban fighters detonated a roadside bomb near an Afghan police patrol Sunday, sparking an hourlong gunbattle that killed four militants, police said. Four police officers were wounded by the bombing.

Austria

VIENNA — European Union nations agreed Sunday to give themselves another year to either end a stalemate over the ratification of their constitution or find some other way to enshrine their goals of expanding and exerting greater world influence.

East Timor

DILI — Tens of thousands of East Timorese fled their burning capital or sought refuge in churches, embassies and the airport Sunday as gangs terrorized neighborhoods virtually at will. The United Nations evacuated hundreds of employees.

Guatemala

GUATEMALA CITY — Former Guatemalan President Romeo Lucas Garcia, whose rule was marked by a bloody police raid on the Spanish Embassy, has died at a hospital in Venezuela. He was 81. Lucas Garcia, who reportedly suffered from Alzheimer's disease and had been incapacitated, died of respiratory failure Saturday in Puerto la Cruz, said family friend Eduardo Vallejas.

Iran

TEHRAN — Four people were killed and 70 were injured in riots last week in the Azeri region northwest of here, according to local news reports, as tensions spread after the publication of a cartoon that has outraged Iran's Azeri population.

Japan

TOKYO — Michael Jackson visited a Tokyo orphanage Sunday during his first round of public appearances since being acquitted of child molestation charges last year. Jackson was in the capital to accept MTV Japan's "Legend Award" during an earlier ceremony at Yoyogi Olympic Stadium.

Lebanon

BEIRUT — Heavy cross-border rocket and artillery exchanges erupted along the Lebanese-Israeli border Sunday and Israeli warplanes struck deep inside Lebanon, blasting Palestinian guerrilla bases near Beirut and Syria's border. Two guerrillas were reported killed.

Mexico