ALGIERS, Algeria — The Algerian senator named to temporarily fill the office vacated by former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said he would act quickly to arrange an “honest and transparent” election to usher in an “Algeria of the future.”

Abdelkader Bensalah, an ally of Bouteflika’s, spoke on national television hours after his appointment as Algeria’s interim president brought immediate protests. In the streets of the capital, protesters who want the country’s established political hierarchy dismantled chanted, “Out with the system.”

Bensalah, the head of the upper house of Parliament, vowed to establish a “sovereign” body to organize a presidential election within 90 days. That’s the constitutional limit for how long he can serve as interim president.

The North African country’s influential military stayed silent on the appointment. It said only that it would work to ensure the “tranquillity” of the country that was led for two decades by Bouteflika, 82, before he stepped down a week ago after weeks of nationwide protests and with a push from the chief of the army.

A protest earlier Tuesday was timed to coincide with the Algerian Parliament’s designation of Bensalah as interim president.

Within an hour, police moved in on the demonstrators, dousing them with pepper spray, shooting bursts from a water cannon and using batons to break up the crowd of thousands on a central avenue.

The clash contrasted with the weeks of overwhelmingly peaceful protests that forced the long-ailing Bouteflika to step down last week.

Ecuador reminds Assange stay in embassy can’t be permanent

QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuador reminded WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange once again Tuesday that he can’t stay in the nation’s London embassy indefinitely.

Foreign Minister Jose Valencia said a permanent stay in the embassy’s cramped quarters isn’t a viable option for anyone.

“It wouldn’t be good for his state of mind, his health,” Valencia told local media.

The remarks come as relations between Ecuador and Assange grow increasingly tense. The Australian has been cooped up in Ecuador’s British embassy since 2012, frequently butting heads with officials over everything from his brash statements on foreign affairs to the hygiene of his cat.

Assange took refuge to escape extradition to Sweden, where he was wanted for questioning on sexual misconduct allegations.

Trump picks Air Force general for Pentagon’s No. 2 spot

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is nominating the Air Force general in charge of U.S. Strategic Command to be vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Gen. John Hyten now serves as commander of the U.S. nuclear forces and has the lead military role for space operations. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson announced his nomination Tuesday.

If confirmed by the Senate, Hyten would succeed the retiring Air Force Gen. Paul Selva.

The vice chairman is the second-ranking military officer behind the chairman but does not command troops

Trump said last December that he was nominating Army Gen. Mark Milley to succeed Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford as chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Dunford’s term ends Oct. 1.

U.S. warns doctors don’t halt opioid pain treatment abruptly

WASHINGTON — U.S. health officials are warning doctors not to abruptly stop prescribing opioid painkillers to patients who are taking them for chronic pain.

The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday it will add new advice on how to taper the medications to all opioid painkiller labels, such as OxyContin, Vicodin and dozens of generic pills.

U.S. officials and states have struggled to fight the opioid epidemic, which includes legal painkillers as well as illicit drugs such as heroin and fentanyl.

The new FDA labeling will warn doctors that rapidly discontinuing opioids in patients who are dependent can cause withdrawal symptoms including uncontrolled pain, nausea, chills and anxiety. In the worst cases, these problems have been linked to suicide.

Plains and Midwest brace for more flooding

BISMARCK, N.D. — The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, one of the poorest areas in the nation, is bracing for another major winter storm and the prospect of renewed flooding that is also forecast to hit a wide swath of the Plains and Midwest just a month after the last weather blast.

March’s “bomb cyclone” — an unusual weather phenomenon in which air pressure drops rapidly and a storm strengthens explosively — dumped heavy snow on Pine Ridge that led to severe flooding.

The prairie reservation is home to nearly 20,000 people, many of whom live in poverty.

The storm moving east out of the northern Rockies on Wednesday and Thursday will pack heavy snow and strong winds, creating life-threatening conditions in the Plains and Upper Midwest, the National Weather Service said.

Richard Cole, last WWII Doolittle Raider, dies

DALLAS — Retired Lt. Col. Richard “Dick” Cole, the last of the 80 Doolittle Tokyo Raiders who carried out the daring U.S. attack on Japan during World War II, has died at a military hospital in Texas. He was 103.

A spokesman says Cole died Tuesday at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, but gave no immediate additional details.

Cole, who lived in Comfort, Texas, had stayed active even in recent years, attending air shows and participating in commemorative events including April 18, 2017, ceremonies for the raid’s 75th anniversary at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force near Dayton, Ohio.

Cole was mission commander Jimmy Doolittle’s co-pilot in the attack less than five months after the December 1941 Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.

In Uganda: Police in the African nation say they have made arrests in the kidnapping last week of an American tourist who has since been freed.

Police did not specify how many people were arrested but said they are “actively investigating” the kidnapping which took place on April 2 in a national park.

The victims — Kim Endicott and local driver Jean-Paul Mirenge — were freed Sunday after being taken across the border to Congo.

Police said the hunt for the kidnappers, including “raids and extensive searches,” is taking place in southwestern Uganda.

Ugandan officials say no ransom was paid, but a tourism operator said that money was paid to secure Endicott’s release.