World dateline

Afghanistan

KABUL — Gunbattles in Afghanistan left two U.S. troops and at least one NATO soldier dead, officials said Tuesday, as the Western alliance prepared to assume military command over the country from the U.S.-led coalition.

Australia

SYDNEY — A powerful 6.2 earthquake rumbled deep below the earth's surface near the Pacific island of Vanuatu early Wednesday. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO — A Brazilian judge ordered the police late Monday to confiscate the passports of the two American pilots who were at the controls of the business jet that apparently collided with an airliner last Friday. The airliner crashed, killing all 155 people aboard, but the business jet was able to land safely.

France

PARIS — French lawmakers are trying to make France's smoky cafes a thing of the past. A parliamentary panel called Tuesday for a government ban on smoking in enclosed public areas within a year — and floated the idea of "hermetically sealed" smoking rooms for those who want to light up.

Indonesia

JAKARTA — A hard-line Muslim youth group chopped up a 100-year-old banyan tree in central Jakarta to prove it did not have mystical powers, as rumors had led some locals to believe, officials said Tuesday. Islam is a strongly monotheistic religion and believing in any power other than God is considered a grave sin.

Ireland

DUBLIN — Premier Bertie Ahern apologized to lawmakers Tuesday for taking money in secret from businessmen more than a decade ago, a scandal that has threatened to end his nine-year term in office or trigger early elections.

Italy

BRINDISI — A Turkish man seeking political asylum hijacked a jetliner carrying 113 people on Tuesday and forced it to land in southern Italy, where he surrendered and released all the passengers unharmed, officials said.

Nigeria

PORT HARCOURT — Security officials said militants kidnapped several foreign oil workers Tuesday in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta region, a day after 25 Nigerians were taken hostage in an attack on a military convoy escorting oil workers.

Thailand

BANGKOK — Ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra resigned from his once all-powerful Thai Rak Thai party in a letter faxed from London Tuesday after more than 200 colleagues quit the organization in the wake of a military coup.