In brief: Turkish deputy premier apologizes

Istanbul – Turkey’s deputy prime minister offered an apology Tuesday for a bruising police crackdown on anti-government demonstrators as clashes between authorities and protesters appeared to diminish in a fifth day of nationwide unrest.

Police seemed to back off from their earlier aggressive use of tear gas and water cannons against people gathered in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, epicenter of the protest movement.

“I apologize for the police aggression against our citizens who were involved in the initial protests and acted with environmental concerns,” Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said in a statement.

There was no sign of contrition from the central figure in the protest drama, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who abruptly left the country amid the crisis for an official trip to North Africa.

U.S. woman raped abroad, police say

New Delhi – An American woman was gang-raped in the northern Indian resort town of Manali, police said.

Three men in a truck picked up the 30-year-old woman as she was hitchhiking to her guest house after visiting a friend, police Officer Sher Singh said.

The men drove to a secluded spot and raped her, he said. She went to police and they filed a rape case.

Authorities issued an alert for the three men and set up roadblocks to check any trucks leaving the town, he said.