BHUBANESHWAR (India) - FLOODWATERS swept away a bus while it crossed a small bridge in eastern India, drowning at least seven people, an official said on Tuesday.

KATMANDU (Nepal) - POLICE broke up a pro-Tibet demonstration in front of the United Nations office in Nepal's capital on Tuesday and detained dozens of protesters.

Tibetans in Nepal have held several demonstrations in the past year to demand an end to Chinese rule in their homeland and denounce the alleged killings of Tibetans by Chinese troops during last year's anti-government riots in Lhasa.

BEIJING - A GROUP of Chinese intellectuals called on Tuesday for the release of a Muslim Uighur scholar who was reportedly detained for links to unrest in China's Xinjiang region that left up to 180 people dead.

Nearly 160 lawyers, intellectuals and artists signed the open letter to the government urging the release of Ilham Tohti, whom activists and rights groups said was detained unfairly last week.