A powerful earthquake hit waters off East Timor on Tuesday, but officials said it was too deep to trigger a tsunami. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the 6.8-magnitude quake struck 171 miles (276 kilometers) from the capital, Dili, and was centered 300 miles (465 kilometers) beneath the Banda Sea.

All charges have been dropped against three commandos who faced Australian courts-martial over the deaths of five children and an adult during a night raid on a home in Afghanistan in 2009, officials said Tuesday.

The trio, whose names have not been made public, were the first Australian soldiers to ever be charged with manslaughter over civilian deaths in battle. The deaths came when the commandos stormed the home in Uruzgan province with gunfire and a grenade after coming under fire from the compound.

Syrian security forces opened fire Tuesday, killing seven people as they tried to disperse thousands of protesters rallying against the regime on the first day of the three-day Muslim holiday that marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, activists said.

The activists said security forces fired at protesters in the southern province of Daraa, in the central city of Homs and in the Damascus suburbs following morning prayers marking Eid al-Fitr.

Nineteen coal miners were pulled to safety Tuesday after being trapped underground for a week in northeastern China, while rescuers searched for their three missing colleagues.

Twenty-six miners were trapped in galleries relatively close to the surface when water poured into a shaft on Aug. 23 from an adjacent mine that had flooded. Three were pulled out alive Saturday and one body was recovered.

Japan's parliament elected former Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda as the new prime minister on Tuesday — the country's sixth leader in five years.

A fiscal conservative, Noda faces a host of daunting problems, including the post-tsunami recovery and nuclear crisis, and a sluggish economy and the yen's surge, which hurts Japan's exporters.

The International Organization for Migration said Monday that it has evacuated 850 more stranded foreign workers, including Lebanese, from the Libyan capital Tripoli aboard a chartered ferry.

The Geneva-based organization said the foreigners include women and children and are headed to the eastern port city of Benghazi, from where they will be taken to Egypt and then to their home countries.

The fantasy of seeing banknotes fluttering down from the sky came true for Dutch motorists after a package containing cash apparently fell from a bank transport truck and broke open.

The incident triggered a dangerous scramble for the euro bills Monday on the busy A2 highway near Maastricht, as people parked cars on the road's shoulder and ran to scoop up loose notes.

The United Nations warned Monday of a possible resurgence of the deadly bird flu virus, saying wild bird migrations had brought it back to previously virus-free countries and that a mutant strain was spreading in Asia.

A mutant strain of H5N1, which can apparently sidestep defenses of existing vaccines, is spreading in China and Vietnam, Tthe U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said in a statement Monday. It urged greater surveillance to ensure that any outbreaks are contained.

BEYONCE'S SURPRISE DATE: Beyonce made a big announcement that practically upstaged the MTV Video Music Awards — and she did it without saying a word.

The 29-year-old superstar announced her pregnancy on the red carpet by cupping her stomach in an "I'm expecting" sort of way. Wearing a blond ponytail and flowing red gown, she used her hands to show the tiniest beginnings of a baby bump.

Manchester United handed Arsenal its heaviest loss under Arsene Wenger on Sunday with Wayne Rooney scoring a hat trick in a humiliating 8-2 drubbing in the Premier League that only compounded the London club's early-season troubles.

Having seen cross-city rival Manchester City thrash Tottenham 5-1 earlier in the day, United responded in style with Ashley Young, Danny Welbeck, Nani and Park Ji-sung joining Rooney on the scoresheet.