World

Wednesday marks the traditional Tibetan New Year, but many Tibetans won't be celebrating. They'll be mourning the almost two-dozen people who set themselves on fire in the past year as a protest against Chinese rule. Eyewitnesses say the town of Aba, site of many of the self-immolations, resembles a Chinese military camp, with soldiers and riot police every few feet. NPR's Louisa Lim traveled elsewhere on the Tibetan plateau to cover the story and sent this dispatch.

It was going to the bathroom that almost got us busted — or , to be precise, my going to the men's bathroom. We were at a gas station on the highway. The women's was out of service, so the attendant told me to go to the men's.

A team of United Nations nuclear experts has returned from Iran empty handed. In a statement today, the International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran refused the team access to a military site at Parchin.

The statement read in part:

"Intensive efforts were made to reach agreement on a document facilitating the clarification of unresolved issues in connection with Iran's nuclear programme, particularly those relating to possible military dimensions. Unfortunately, agreement was not reached on this document.

A commuter train carrying people into downtown Buenos Aires collided with a retaining wall during morning rush hour, killing at least 49 people riding in carriages and waiting on the platform. As many as 600 people are hurt and firefighters are still trying to cut through wreckage to reach trapped people, says Telam, Argentina's national news agency.

What is America's policy when it comes to dictators? Well, it depends.

The U.S. has adopted many different approaches toward different dictators and authoritarian regimes in recent years. In some cases – notably Iraq and Afghanistan – the U.S. military invaded to change the leaders of those countries.

But American presidents have also hosted friendly visits with leaders from undemocratic countries with questionable human rights records.

The question of how to deal with dictators remains central to American foreign policy. But factors such as a country's strategic importance or its oil wealth may blunt an urge to insist on democracy.

As the case against former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak came to a close today, the trial judge announced he expects to deliver a verdict on June 2.

According to al-Jazeera:

"Mubarak turned down a chance to address the court , the prosecution has called for the death penalty. If convicted, Mubarak, his interior minister Habib al-Adly and six security chiefs could receive the death penalty for ordering the deaths of protesters during the uprising that toppled Mubarak a year ago."