World datelines

Bolivia: Morales rejects help

LA PAZ — President Evo Morales said Saturday that Bolivia does not need U.S. help to control its coca crop, stepping up his anti-Washington rhetoric days after rejecting an American request to fly an anti-drug plane over the South American nation's territory.

Morales also compared U.S. counter-drug efforts in the country, including Drug Enforcement Administration flights, to espionage.

"It's important that the international community knows that here, we don't need control of the United States on coca cultivation," the president told a gathering of coca farmers. "We can control ourselves internally. We don't need any spying from anybody."

Austria: Israel criticized

VIENNA — A U.N. nuclear conference has indirectly criticized Israel for refusing to put its atomic program under international purview.

But a Muslim-led push Saturday linking the Jewish state to nuclear proliferation in the Mideast has been defeated. Iran spearheaded the verbal attack at the 145-nation International Atomic Energy Agency general conference.

The nations voted for a resolution urging all Mideast nations to work for establishment of a nuclear weapons free zone and to open their nuclear activities to outside perusal. With Israel the only country in the region considered to have atomic arms, passage of the resolution constituted indirect criticism of the Jewish state.

Mexico: Hurricane downgraded

MEXICO CITY — The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Marie has weakened into a tropical storm far off Mexico's Pacific coast.

The Miami-based center says Marie has maximum sustained winds of 65 mph. The storm is barely moving northwest, centered 850 miles off the southern tip of Baja California. Marie was the sixth hurricane of the eastern Pacific season.

Pakistan: Strike kills 20

DERA ISMAIL KHAN — Militants on Saturday buried the bodies of Arab comrades who were among at least 20 people killed when suspected U.S. missiles hit a house near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials said.

The United States has launched a flurry of strikes in recent weeks against suspected al-Qaida and Taliban targets in northwestern Pakistan, straining ties between the two anti-terror allies. The latest strike reportedly took place Friday in Mohammadkhel, a village in the North Waziristan region.

Turkey: Army, rebels clash