WORLD briefs

WASHINGTON. The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to approve Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor to be the first Hispanic justice.

The committee voted 13-6 Tuesday morning to send Sotomayor's nomination to the full Senate, where she's expected to be confirmed easily next week.

ROME. Germany's Paul Biedermann has handed Michael Phelps his first major individual loss in four years, setting a world record in the 200-meter freestyle at the world championships.

Biedermann touched in 1 minute, 42.00 seconds, beating Phelps' record of 1:42.96 set at last year's Beijing Olympics. Phelps was a body length behind, touching in 1:43.22

YANGON, Myanmar. The defense team for Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi delivered its final arguments Tuesday, closing the case days ahead of a verdict the Nobel laureate softly said will be "painfully obvious."

The high-profile trial that began in May has drawn international condemnation from rights activists, world leaders and celebrities who have called for her immediate release.

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria. Thousands of Nigerians sheltered in barracks in the northern city of Maiduguri on Tuesday after days of clashes involving Muslim rebels which have killed at least 150 people across four states.

Members of a local Islamic group have burned churches, police stations and a prison and set off petrol bombs near residential areas in the unrest. Local police said 103 people, most of them rioters, had been killed in Maiduguri alone.

VIENNA. The future of an Austrian institute for Holocaust studies was in doubt Tuesday over a dispute with the city's Jewish community.

The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies began provisional operations in January after being stymied for years by funding problems.

ISLAMABAD. Security forces have rescued several children forcibly recruited by the Taliban, allegedly to be used as fighters or suicide bombers, and there could be hundreds more of them, officials said Tuesday.