ULAN BATOR, Mongolia -- The president declared a four-day state of emergency in Mongolia's capital early Wednesday after protesters stormed the headquarters of the ruling party, alleging fraud in weekend parliamentary elections.

"Police will use necessary force to crack down on criminals who are looting private and government property," said Munkhorgil, the minister of justice and home affairs, who like some Mongolians goes by one name. Ulan Bator was also placed under a 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. curfew, he said.

The crowd thinned slightly after the emergency declaration, though some protesters had begun looting paintings from an art gallery and televisions from government offices. Others vandalized parked cars.

No matter who is elected president in November, his foreign policy team will have to deal with one of the most frustrating realities in Iraq: the slow pace with which the government in Baghdad operates.

Iraq's political and military success is considered vital to U.S. interests, whether troops stay or go. And while the Iraqi government has made measurable progress in recent months, the pace at which it's done so has been achingly slow.

The White House sees the progress in a particularly positive light, declaring in a new assessment to Congress that Iraq's efforts on 15 of 18 benchmarks are "satisfactory" -- almost twice of what it determined to be the case a year ago.

The May 2008 report card, obtained by the Associated Press, determines that only two of the benchmarks -- enacting and implementing laws to disarm militias and distribute oil revenues -- are unsatisfactory.

In the past 12 months, since the White House released its first formal assessment of Iraq's military and political progress, Baghdad politicians have reached several new agreements seen as critical to easing sectarian tensions.

They have passed, for example, legislation that grants amnesty for some prisoners and allows former members of Saddam Hussein's political party to recover lost jobs or pensions. They also determined that provincial elections would be held by Oct. 1.

PARIS -- France's six-month European Union presidency got off to a shaky start Tuesday amid bickering between the bloc's trade chief and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and glum comments from Poland's leader on the EU's future direction.

As Europe's flag of 12 gold stars on an azure field fluttered side by side with France's tricolor under Paris's Arc de Triomphe, Sarkozy met nearby with the European Commission, the 27-member EU executive that runs the bloc's day-to-day business.

He and European Commission President Manuel Barroso pledged to work together for projects that enjoy broad public support, such as measures aimed at tackling high food and fuel prices, reversing climate change, combatting illegal immigration and channeling the impact of globalization.

The biggest challenge facing France at the outset of its EU presidency was Ireland's vote last month rejecting a treaty meant to make the EU work better. Sarkozy has a personal stake in seeing the deal through, because he was one of its architects. But the Irish vote has thrown the ratification process into turmoil because the treaty can only take effect in 2009 if ratified by all 27 EU states.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski was quoted Tuesday as saying that ratifying the EU reform treaty would be "pointless" after the Irish rejection.

LIMA, Peru -- Peru's president said Tuesday that he's sick of Bolivian President Evo Morales criticizing Peru's trade pact with the United States, spreading false rumors about American military bases and urging Peruvians to protest in the street. Things really got unneighborly when Morales called Garcia "fat."

President Alan Garcia said he is tempted to borrow the words Spain's king tossed at Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last year: "Why don't you shut up?"

"Stick to your own country and don't meddle in mine," Garcia said, referring to Morales.

Morales quickly fired back from Argentina, where he was attending a summit of the Mercosur trade bloc.

"Any president who tells someone to shut up is an antidemocratic president," Morales said. "The arrogance of kings is a vice that shouldn't be copied."

Peru's ambassador to Bolivia was called back to Lima two days ago to discuss relations after Morales said Saturday that the U.S. was "bringing its military bases" to Peru.

Bolivia also has opposed Peru's strengthening of intellectual property laws, a requirement of the U.S. trade deal.

SEOUL, South Korea -- U.S. beef returned to South Korean store shelves Tuesday under a new import agreement that has failed to stem anti-government protests, which have raged for weeks and turned central Seoul into a riot zone.

The government said it would take tough action to stop the increasingly violent rallies, which began two months ago with schoolgirls holding candlelight vigils. But the protests have lately also seen club-wielding demonstrators trying to break through barricades of police buses under showers of water cannons.

"What began as a peaceful candlelight rally has changed in nature to a point where it is difficult to see any purity" in its cause, Prime Minister Han Seung-soo told a Cabinet meeting, according to a government Web site.

This week, a prominent Catholic group joined the rallies, with priests and nuns also protesting at a plaza in front of city hall. Some 3,000 people gathered there Tuesday evening, police said, and no clashes were immediately reported.

JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Palestinian militants on Tuesday that Israel would respond with force if attacks from the Gaza Strip persist in defiance of a recent truce.

Earlier in the day, Israel once again closed its cargo crossings, accusing Palestinian militants of firing a rocket at southern Israel in violation of a shaky truce.

Gaza's Hamas rulers denied a rocket was fired on Monday evening, and accused Israel of looking for excuses to shirk its commitment under the cease-fire agreement to ease its blockade of impoverished Gaza.

Militants have attacked Israel at least three times since the June 19 truce. Israel has responded by closing its cargo crossings with Gaza, but has not responded militarily.

BEIJING -- A jobless man bent on revenge and armed with a butcher knife stormed a police station in Shanghai on Tuesday, slashing and stabbing officers inside and killing at least five, authorities and local media said.

The Shanghai Public Security Bureau said in a news release that a 28-year-old man with the surname Yang set a fire outside the building's gate and then rushed inside and began attacking officers.

Five officers died after being taken to a hospital, while four other police officers and a security guard were hurt, the statement said.

Some suffered stab wounds to the chest while others were slashed across the face or neck, the Chinese news Web portal sina.com reported.

News photos showed the large bloodstained butcher knife allegedly used in the attack and Yang sitting handcuffed on a chair after he was detained. One sleeve of his white T-shirt appeared to be blood spattered.