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YANGON (Reuters) - As long-isolated Myanmar opens up, its people are flexing their newly democratic muscles and testing the boundaries of freedom in a series of protests over chronic power outages.

VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog director said on Tuesday he expected to sign a deal with Iran soon to unblock an investigation into suspected work on atom bombs, potentially brightening prospects for big-power talks with Tehran to stop a drift toward conflict.

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian rebels said police had opened fire and killed two people on Tuesday when a crowd turned out to greet a team of U.N. ceasefire monitors in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor.

CAIRO (Reuters) - In the Cairo shantytown of Dweika, raw sewage forms puddles in dirt roads and families of seven or more live crammed into two-room shacks that appear in imminent danger of collapse - as does the ground beneath their feet.

KABUL (Reuters) - People in Afghanistan were surprisingly optimistic on Tuesday about NATO's plan to pull combat troops out of their war-ravaged nation by the end of 2014, but warned Western leaders to stick to aid and security promises.

DAKAR (Reuters) - Equatorial Guinea President Teodor Obiang Nguema has promoted his farm minister son - wanted in France for alleged money laundering - to vice president in charge of national defense and state security, a government statement said on Tuesday.

ROME (Reuters) - The leader of the Legionaries of Christ admitted on Tuesday he knew for years the scandal-plagued Roman Catholic order's most famous priest had fathered a child but still allowed the popular cleric to preach about morality.

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine will use fighters and helicopters to guard its air space and put security and health services on full alert during the European soccer championship, but officials said on Tuesday they could do little to stem a likely flood of prostitutes.

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisia will extradite former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's prime minister to Libya and the handover could take place in "days or weeks", Justice Minister Noureddine Bouheiri said on Tuesday.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - For an insight into the world of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, consider the tale of a humble asterisk.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Named for the crash site of an airforce plane shot down during the Six Day War in 1967, Givat HaMatos may yet prove the place where Palestinian hopes of a creating a capital in Jerusalem also plunge to earth.

ATHENS (Reuters) - In a land of ancient myths, modern Greeks have created some of their own about their near-bankrupt country's future as an integral part of a Europe that will never kick them out.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin named seven former cabinet ministers as aides on Tuesday, in a move expected to weaken Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's new government and shift power to the Kremlin.

LONDON (Reuters) - Egypt's military rulers plan to spend close to $1 billion on diesel this summer, a spike in imports as they brace for a first free presidential election triggered by last year's uprising with a wary eye on renewed civil unrest.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter dismissed as "nonsense" French President Francois Hollande's approach to resolving the euro zone debt crisis and insisted, in a newspaper interview, on financial discipline.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand is to ban the use of foreign-flagged fishing boats in its waters to improve working conditions for crews and monitoring of catches, the government said on Tuesday.

SOFIA (Reuters) - A 5.6 magnitude earthquake shook Bulgaria's capital Sofia early on Tuesday, causing residents to rush into the streets, the civil defense office said.

SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - Ruling party candidate Danilo Medina claimed victory on Monday in the Dominican Republic's hotly disputed presidential election, avenging his defeat 12 years ago by opposition candidate Hipolito Mejia.

ALBIREH, Lebanon (Reuters) - Hundreds of Islamist gunmen fired in the air on Monday at the funeral of a Sunni Muslim cleric whose killing ignited street battles and brought the bloodshed from Syria's 14-month-old uprising spilling across the border into Lebanon.

SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - Ruling party candidate Danilo Medina claimed victory on Monday in the Dominican Republic's hotly disputed presidential election, avenging his defeat 12 years ago by opposition candidate Hipolito Mejia.