South Korea's spy agency chief came under growing pressure to step down Wednesday over a scandal with political ramifications involving the fabrication of evidence in an espionage case.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) has been accused of forging documents -- including Chinese border control records -- to build a spying case against a former Seoul City official who escaped to South Korea from North Korea in 2004.

A campaign finance scandal has ensnared a Hillary Clinton aide who court papers show secured illegal funding for a 2008 campaign operation, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Senior campaign advisor Minyon Moore was linked to a scheme to fund pro-Clinton operations in four states and Puerto Rico to the tune of $608,750 during Clinton's tough campaign for the Democratic presidential primary, the daily reported, citing documents from U.S. District Court in Washington.

Students and opponents of the Venezuelan government have called a new rally for Wednesday to mark a month of protests in Caracas, as the death toll from demo-related violence reached 21.

Students throwing rocks and homemade firebombs clashed late Tuesday with police who tried to disperse them with tear gas and water cannon. No injuries were immediately reported.

The nominee to head the U.S. National Security Agency on Tuesday defended the use of bulk data collection but said he also wants more transparency about the secretive spy service.

Vice Admiral Michael Rogers, nominated by President Barack Obama to head the agency at the center of a public firestorm over surveillance, told lawmakers the NSA needs to be able to access the vast amounts of metadata to thwart terror attacks.

The U.S. Congress on Tuesday demanded Russia immediately withdraw from Ukraine and urged U.S. President Barack Obama to impose punitive economic sanctions on Moscow.

The Senate expressed its support for Ukraine by passing strongly worded resolutions, using tough language against Russia and urging it be suspended from the Group of 8 world powers.

Malaysia faced a storm of criticism Wednesday over contradictions and information gaps in the hunt for a missing airliner with 239 people on board, as the search zone dramatically veered far from the intended flight path.

Efforts to locate Malaysia Airlines flight 370, involving the navies and air forces of multiple nations, had focused on Vietnam's South China Sea coast where it last made contact Saturday on a journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Socialist Michelle Bachelet took the oath of office as president of Chile Tuesday, returning to power after four years with a reform agenda to reduce social disparities in this prosperous South American country.

The 62-year-old was sworn in at a solemn ceremony in the Congress, which has its seat in the port of Valparaiso, 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of Santiago.

Thousands of refugees are fleeing harrowing scenes of atrocities and body-strewn streets in northern Nigeria, the U.N. said Tuesday.

The U.N.'s refugee agency said violence in the area had prompted some 2,000 people to flee into neighboring Niger over the past four weeks alone.

President Vladimir Putin has seen his approval rating climb in Russia due to his strong stance on military intervention in Ukraine, several opinion polls show.

More than two out of three Russians (69 percent of those interviewed), say they back Putin's actions, a poll by the independent Levada agency found in late February after interviewing 1,603 people in 45 regions.

Ukraine's former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, has experienced some relief from debilitating back pain since arriving in Germany for care last week, the hospital treating her said Tuesday.

Tymoshenko, a leader of the pro-Western Orange Revolution in 2004, suffers from herniated discs and underwent medical examinations at Berlin's renowned Charite university hospital after landing on Saturday.