World datelines

Afghanistan: Campaign

KABUL — Oversize posters of President Hamid Karzai blanketed the Afghan capital Tuesday as the two-month presidential campaign began. While Afghans on the street openly complained about Karzai's rule, a new survey showed why he is likely to win a second term: His opponents have almost no support.

The poll found that 31 percent of 3,200 Afghans surveyed said they would vote for Karzai if the Aug. 20 presidential election were held today — a steep decline from the 55 percent of Afghans who voted to give him a five-year term in 2004.

China: Woman freed

BEIJING — A Chinese woman who became a folk hero after fatally stabbing a Communist Party official to fend off his demands for sex was freed by a court Tuesday, a decision that likely avoided a storm of public criticism over the case.

Deng Yujiao, 21, was accused of stabbing the official with a fruit knife and injuring his colleague when the two inebriated men cornered her one night last month at the hotel she worked in as a karaoke bar waitress.

France: Plane search

LE BOURGET — The arduous mid-Atlantic search for the remains of Air France Flight 447 will go on as long as there is hope of finding the plane's black boxes, the French defense minister said Tuesday.

Herve Morin and his Brazilian counterpart Nelson Jobim met at the Paris Air Show and shared notes on progress of the search, which includes the Brazilian military, a French submarine and Dutch ships towing two high-tech U.S. Navy listening devices seeking sounds emanating from the Airbus A330's flight data and cockpit voice recorders — pings that will grow faint and die after two more weeks.

Gabon: State funeral

LIBREVILLE — Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of Gabon's capital Tuesday to say farewell to late President Omar Bongo, whose flag-draped coffin was paraded through the heart of a nation he was accused of pillaging during four decades of rule.

The state funeral of 73-year-old Bongo began inside the marble halls of the presidential palace, a towering edifice he spent an estimated $800 million to build. The red carpet leading to his casket was strewn with white rose petals — flown in from France.

Germany: Missing family