South Korea

North Korea urges U.S. to change policy

North Korea warned Sunday that six-nation talks wouldn’t help resolve the standoff about its nuclear program if the United States did not change its policy toward the communist state.

The comments came a day after a meeting of the six governments in Beijing, which ended with an agreement to have more negotiations before July.

The North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said Sunday that Pyongyang had consented to more talks because it still seeks a peaceful solution, but he urged the United States to change its policy toward the North.

North Korea has been seeking security guarantees, free oil and other aid from the United States in exchange for action. The United States, however, wants the North to scrap its entire nuclear program, and refuses to grant concessions until Pyongyang does so.

Germany

Chancellor’s party routed in Hamburg vote

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s party was handed a stinging defeat by voters in Hamburg in Sunday elections, reflecting the pent-up anger over his push to cut cherished state benefits.

Schroeder’s Social Democrats slumped to a postwar low in the northern port city they ruled for decades until 2001, while the conservative Christian Democrats surged to a majority on a campaign built on Mayor Ole von Beust’s personal popularity.

The Social Democrats won 30.5 percent, down from 36.5 percent in 2001, while the Christian Democrats polled 47.2 percent, up from 26.2 percent, according to official results. The Greens improved, but not enough to help the Social Democrats unseat the conservatives.

Pakistan

Senators protest checkpoint shooting

Opposition politicians walked out of the Senate on Sunday to protest the shooting deaths of 13 people by security forces in a remote tribal region of Pakistan, scene of a recent military operation to nab al-Qaida suspects.

Troops fired on a minibus that failed to stop Saturday at a roadblock in tribal South Waziristan, outraging residents of the semiautonomous region and prompting President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to announce an investigation.

The president said Sunday that the government would pay $1,750 in compensation to the families of those killed and half that for the injured, an indication the government acknowledged the victims were innocent civilians.

Eleven people died at the scene of the shooting, and two died late Saturday.

Beijing

Bus crash kills 12

A bus carrying migrant workers to factory jobs plunged off a mountain road in central China, killing 12 and injuring 35, a local government official said Sunday.

All the injured were sent to local hospitals, where nine were listed in serious condition, according to a duty officer at the Wanzhou county government in the Chongqing region.

The bus swerved across the center line about 1 a.m. Sunday and crashed through the guardrail, falling 36 feet into a riverbed, said the officer, who declined to give his name.

He said the bus was traveling from Bazhong in the poor, densely populated province of Sichuan to industrial Guangdong province, about 620 miles away.

China’s roads are among the world’s deadliest, with accidents caused by overcrowded and badly maintained vehicles.

Iraq

U.S. troops draw protest after firing on car

Hundreds of Iraqis rallied against coalition troops Sunday after U.S. soldiers fired on a car that failed to stop when a military convoy passed by. One Iraqi was killed, and another was critically wounded.

The shooting took place near Rumaythah, 135 miles south of Baghdad near the city of Samawah, where Dutch soldiers and about 230 Japanese troops are based.

A crowd gathered around the site of the shooting, where the car sat with its windows broken, chanting “Down with America! Down with Bush!” U.S. soldiers and Dutch marines trying to clear the roadway were pelted with rocks and taunted.