By Lamine Chikhi and Myra MacDonald ALGIERS (Reuters) - Three weeks after being rushed to hospital in Paris, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has disappeared from sight, leaving behind a country preparing for a successor who for the first time will come from a generation too young to have fought in Algeria's war of independence against France. In a country run with Soviet-style secrecy, nobody is sure how sick Bouteflika is. ...

KAVARNA, Bulgaria (AP) — Graeme McDowell made amends for last year's defeat to capture the World Match-Play Championship on Sunday, defeating Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee 2 and 1 in the final on the Thracian Cliffs course.

By Tarek Amara TUNIS (Reuters) - Supporters of a hardline Islamist group clashed with Tunisian police in two cities on Sunday after the government banned its annual rally and the regional arm of al Qaeda urged it to stand firm against the authorities. Violence broke out in the central city of Kairouan, venue of the planned rally, and in a district of Tunis, where a Reuters witness said a number of people were injured. ...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's state radio says authorities have executed two men convicted of spying for Israel's Mossad and the American CIA intelligence agency.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan President Hamid Karzai will seek increased military aid from India during a three-day visit starting Monday and will discuss recent cross-border clashes with Pakistan, India's archrival, an aide said.

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Syrian troops backed by tanks and warplanes launched an assault Sunday on a strategic rebel-held town near the Lebanese border, pounding the area with airstrikes and artillery salvos that killed at least 30 people and forced residents to scramble for cover in basements and makeshift bunkers, activists said.

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — The transit agency that runs the Metro-North commuter rail line says trains damaged in a Friday crash in Connecticut are being removed in the first step to making repairs and restoring service.

By Agnieszka Flak JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's justice minister on Sunday accused an Indian High Commission official and some South Africans of colluding to obtain permission for a plane chartered by a rich family close to President Jacob Zuma to use an air force base to land. The affair - dubbed "Guptagate" after the influential Indian-born Gupta family - has transfixed South Africa since the private flight landed at Pretoria's Waterkloof Air Force base last month with nearly 200 guests for a lavish family wedding. ...

KAIROUAN, Tunisia (AP) — Around 11,000 police officers and soldiers blocked an annual conference Sunday at Tunisia's main religious center by a radical Islamist movement that has been implicated in attacks across the country.

MONACO (AP) — The glittering star power of Cannes migrated up the coast to Monaco for front-row seats at Dior's colorful, sexy cruise fashion show.

ROME (AP) — Serena Williams won her fourth consecutive title of the year in dominating fashion Sunday, beating third-seeded Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 6-3 in the Italian Open final.

By David Lewis BAMAKO (Reuters) - After winning adulation across Mali for a five month military offensive that crushed al Qaeda fighters, France is now frustrating some of its allies by pushing for a political settlement with a separate group of Tuareg rebels. A standoff over how to restore Malian government authority to Kidal, the last town in the desert north yet to be brought under central control, is sowing resentment with Paris and could delay planned elections to restore democracy after a coup. ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior White House adviser insists President Barack Obama learned the Internal Revenue Service had been targeting tea party groups "when it came out in the news."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The night of smoke, chaos, gunfire and grenades that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, is well-documented. Eight months later, it is the decisions made back in Washington that remain murky and in perpetual dispute.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Police shot dead a couple suspected to be terrorists after they threw four grenades, wounding five officers in an overnight stand-off, a police official said Sunday.

By Ann Saphir and Jonathan Spicer (Reuters) - The beginning of the end of the Federal Reserve's massive bond-buying program might come sooner than many investors think if recent gains in the U.S. labor market do not prove fleeting. Much will depend on how economic data, which has given mixed signals for growth prospects, develops over the next few months. Reports on job growth in particular will go a long way in helping Fed officials determine whether the time is right to trim the pace of their $85 billion in monthly purchases. The marked improvement in the labor market since the U.S. ...

By William Schomberg LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Mervyn King has urged successor Mark Carney not to bring to Britain his trademark policy of spelling out how long interest rates will remain low. King also said the bank could not be run as "a one-man show," a sign of concern at high expectations that the arrival of the Canadian will lead to a quick fix for Britain's slow economy. In an interview with Sky News television broadcast on Sunday, King praised Carney, saying Britain was fortunate to have him. ...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — A Saudi newspaper says a vegetable seller who set himself on fire in Riyadh after police confiscated his goods for standing in an unauthorized area has died.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police enraged by the kidnapping of seven of their colleagues by Islamist gunmen in the Sinai Peninsula blocked a commercial border crossing with Israel on Sunday, security sources said. Police have been blocking another border post, the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip, since Friday to press the government of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, who belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, to help free the seven. ...

By Ed Stoddard JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers said on Sunday it would seek pay hikes of up to 60 percent from the country's gold and coal producers in upcoming wage talks which are expected to be among the toughest ever. NUM said it was seeking an entry-level minimum monthly wage of 7,000 rand for surface workers and 8,000 rand for those underground in a submission to the country's Chamber of Mines, a copy of which was seen by Reuters. ...