DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish opponents of the European Union’s Lisbon reform treaty on Tuesday launched their campaign ahead of October’s referendum with a warning the charter would leave workers worse off and more exposed to spending cuts.

Brazil is seeking to reduce its cooperation with foreign oil companies to more directly control extraction.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has ordered two Czech diplomats to leave the country in a tit-for-tat spying row with Prague, Interfax news agency quoted an unidentified Russian official as saying on Tuesday.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Criminal impunity has become an increasing target of public anger in Sri Lanka since the end of a 25-year war in May, which exposed the extent to which the rule of law has eroded in the Indian Ocean island nation.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has arrested eight people who hijacked the merchant ship Arctic Sea, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies on Tuesday.

Polish prisoners escape German jail using knotted bedsheets.

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - In a move that could speed his release, Scotland’s high court agreed that a Libyan jailed for the 1988 bombing of a plane over Lockerbie can drop his appeal against conviction.

SEOUL (Reuters) - Former President Kim Dae-jung, a giant in South Korea’s shift to democracy who won the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to forge a reconciliation with the prickly communist North, died on Tuesday at the age of 85.

Gen. Ray Odierno said that releasing members of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, which is believed responsible for attacks that have killed Americans, is a step toward reconciliation.

Threat of violence looms over Afghan vote, from militants and supporters of losing candidates