WORLD BRIEFS

HAITI: Cholera aid center attacked

Protesters attacked a cholera treatment center as it was preparing to open in the city of St. Marc on Tuesday, highlighting the fear surrounding a disease that was almost unknown in Haiti before it began spreading through the countryside, aid workers said. Some of the roughly 300 students and other protesters said they feared the Doctors Without Borders-Spain clinic would bring more of the disease to their seaside town. The week-old epidemic has killed 284 people and infected 3,769, according to UN figures. Witnesses said the protesters threw rocks and at least one Molotov cocktail. UN peacekeepers from Argentina arrived with riot shields to reinforce police. More than 420 new cholera cases were confirmed Tuesday.

IRAN: Hiker's bail threatened

Tehran's prosecutor said Tuesday that Iran will seize the $500,000 bail posted by Sarah Shourd, who was freed from Evin prison last month, if she does not return for the start of her trial on Nov. 6. Meanwhile, according to a U.S. military report that is among documents posted by the WikiLeaks website, Shourd and her two companions were on the Iraqi side of the border at the time they were detained.

FRANCE: Senate OKs retirement age

Garbage collectors waded through mounds of reeking trash as they headed back to work Tuesday and some oil workers deserted picket lines, signs of fading momentum in the battle against raising the retirement age. France's finance minister declared that the massive protest had finally reached a "turning point," and the Senate gave its 177-151 approval to President Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to increase the retirement age from 60 to 62.

SLOVENIA: Fist black mayor elected

Slovenia has elected its first black mayor, an immigrant from Ghana known as the "Obama of Piran," the town where he lives. Peter Bossman, 54, could be the first black mayor elected anywhere in his region of Europe. Bossman, a Social Democrat, won a runoff election Sunday.