Datelines

Hungary

BUDAPEST - A car bomb exploded in downtown Budapest, killing four people and injuring at least 20, police said. The bombing was apparently part of a turf battle between Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, Turkish and Arab criminal gangs, police said. Police are investigating some 140 bombings since 1991.

Iraq

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi press stepped up criticism of this week's U.S. missile attack against Iraqi defense units, with one newspaper calling the assault another example of American "foolishness."

Australia

BRISBANE - Koala numbers have declined from several million at the turn of the century to between 45,000 and 80,000 today, according to the Australian Koala Foundation.

Russia

MOSCOW - The prime minister threatened to seize assets from the country's largest company, Gazprom, unless the natural gas monopoly starts paying its back taxes, news agencies reported.

South Korea

SEOUL - The bodies of nine men found in a North Korean submarine that was seized in South Korean waters will be returned to the North, the U.N. Command said.

Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR - Fearing more attacks by tigers, a Malaysian environmental group has urged a crackdown on illegal hunting and logging that have driven tigers to hunt outside their natural habitat.

Congo

KINSHASA - The country's foremost opposition leader was freed from internal exile and returned to the capital. Etienne Tshisekedi was arrested in February and banished to his home village of Mupompa, 435 miles west of Kinshasa.

Israel

JERUSALEM - After questioning each other's competence and quarreling over Mideast peacemaking, Israel's president and prime minister agreed to stop trading blame in public.

Iran

TEHRAN - State radio said the United States would welcome using the firing earlier this week of a U.S. missile at an Iraqi radar site as an excuse to escalate tensions and prolong sanctions against Iraq.

India

NEW DELHI - The cloud of sanctions over India is unlikely to clear soon because of New Delhi's rigid stand on its right to nuclear weapons capability, the Japanese ambassador to India said.

Sudan

KHARTOUM - The country's Islamist government said its opponents planted bombs in Khartoum to disrupt the anniversary of the coup that brought it to power.

Turkey

ANKARA - Foreign Minister Ismail Cem will pay an official visit to Israel next week, a further sign of growing bilateral cooperation, his ministry said.

Sri Lanka

COLOMBO - Fresh fighting in the north and east killed 62 combatants as the military said the 14-year-old war had reached a decisive stage.

Spain

MADRID - A man beat his girlfriend and broke her nose in front of dozens of onlookers at the start of an anti-domestic violence rally, officials said.

Pakistan

KARACHI - Rival factions of a militant ethnic group terrorized this southern port city, killing 11 people, including two policemen and two soldiers.