Oil tanker spills 1.3 million gallons

A Japanese tanker spilled about 1.3 million gallons of crude oil in the eastern Indian Ocean following a collision with a cargo ship, the tanker's operator said today.

Japan's Kyodo news service said the spill — which would be about 31,500 barrels — may have been the largest ever involving a Japanese tanker.

Protesters, police clash over camp

Protesters scuffled with riot police outside Congress on Monday after supporters of leftist presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador tried to set up a protest camp to demand a full recount in last month's election.

López Obrador's backers, who say the official vote count that gave Felipe Calderón of the National Action Party an advantage of about 240,000 ballots in the July 2 race was a fraud, also set up pickets at the Federal Electoral Tribunal as it met to resolve election disputes.

Lawmakers from López Obrador's Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, later filed a complaint against police and said Sen. Elías Moreno Brizuela had suffered a rib injury.

Protesters maintained around-the-clock tent camps across large swaths of central Mexico City.

Chinese farmer dies of bird flu

A 62-year-old farmer in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang has died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the Health Ministry said Monday.

It was the 20th human case of bird flu and the 13th fatality from the virus since last November.

A magnitude 6.5 earthquake shook the sea floor in the South Pacific today, but there was no tsunami warning, officials said. There were no immediate reports of damage.

The quake struck about 110 miles southwest of Macauley Island, which is located in New Zealand's uninhabited Kermadec Islands, said the New Zealand geological agency, GNS Science.

Also today, a 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck in eastern Indonesia, but there was no threat of a tsunami, officials said.

The quake was centered beneath the Banda Sea about 120 miles southwest of Ambon, the capital of Maluku province, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.

American among 4 abducted workers

Armed men seized four foreign oil workers — two Britons, an American and a German — from a nightclub, the latest in a spate of abductions targeting the petroleum industry in Africa's largest crude-producing country.

Meanwhile, two foreign oil workers kidnapped last week — a Moroccan and a Belgian — were released late Monday. Earlier in the day, three Filipino hostages were released.

Nigeria's oil-rich southeastern delta has seen 14 abductions in the past week. Kidnappings and sabotage attacks by rebels, who argue that the impoverished region does not benefit from its oil, have cut Nigerian production by more than 20 percent since the beginning of the year. Most kidnap victims in the delta are returned unharmed.

Also

Tokyo power outage: A power-cable disruption on the eastern edge of Tokyo caused widespread blackouts in the metropolitan area, cutting power to about 1.39 million households and causing train services to suspend operations Monday morning.

Tourist killed: A 19-year-old Portuguese tourist was stabbed to death by a thief on Rio de Janeiro's famous Copacabana beach in front of his shocked parents Monday, police said.

Compiled from The Associated Press, Reuters and Yomiuri Shimbun