The blaze at the home of the Berlin Philharmonic broke out beneath the roof of the main concert hall, famed for its acoustics.

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TOKYO — An anonymous baby "drop box" in southern Japan received 17 babies from around the country in its first year since opening last May, reports said.

The Catholic-run Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto City created the "Stork's Cradle" following a series of high-profile cases in which newborns were abandoned in parks and at supermarkets.

People can leave babies in an incubator via a small hatch on the side of the hospital.

The children are cared for by the hospital, then put up for adoption or sent to a home for infants.

Of the 17 babies, there were 13 boys and four girls, Kyodo News agency said.

BERLIN — A fire Tuesday sent plumes of acrid gray smoke pouring from the roof of the Berlin Philharmonic's landmark home, where musicians and firefighters rushed to save precious instruments.

The blaze broke out beneath the roof of the building over the main concert hall, which seats 2,440 and is famed for its extraordinary acoustics. There were no injuries, officials said.

Welding work had been carried out on the building's tin roof earlier in the day, and police were investigating that as a possible cause, police spokeswoman Heike Nagora said.

Firefighters cut open parts of the tent-shaped roof, about 160 feet above the ground, to get at the fire and bring it under control, senior fire officer Karsten Goewecke said.

AMSTERDAM — The governors of a newly opened archive of Nazi-era documents said Tuesday they will consider ending the 60-year role of the Red Cross in running the historically invaluable storehouse.

At its annual meeting in Brussels, Belgium, the 11-nation commission that oversees the International Tracing Service decided to review the archive's administrative structure. A panel will report its conclusions to the next annual meeting, spokeswoman Kathrin Flor said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross says that with the generation of Holocaust survivors dying out, the archive's humanitarian mission is ending and will shift toward historic research.

REYKJAVIK — Whale-hunting season began in Iceland on Tuesday as the country's first whaling ship of the year set sail in defiance of a worldwide moratorium on the practice.

Despite condemnation from environmental groups and concerns by Iceland's foreign minister that a resumption of whaling could damage the country's popular whale-watching business, the government is allowing 40 minke whales to be hunted for their meat over the next six months.

Iceland stopped whale hunting in 1986 after the International Whaling Commission put a moratorium on the practice in an attempt to protect several vulnerable species. But Iceland resumed whaling in 2006, prompting protests from conservation groups and many other governments.

Icelandic whalers say the hunt is part of their tradition.

ALTAMIRA — Painted and feathered Indians bearing machetes and clubs slashed an official of Brazil's national electric company Tuesday during a protest over a proposed hydroelectric dam.

Mobs of Indians set upon Eletrobras engineer Paulo Fernando Rezende moments after he gave a presentation to a gathering debating the impact of the Belo Monte dam on traditional communities in this Amazon river city.

Environmentalists say the dam could destroy the Indians' longtime fishing grounds and displace 15,000 people.

Iran has stymied the latest U.N. attempt to investigate allegations that it tried to make nuclear weapons, diplomats said Tuesday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, will acknowledge it was unable to follow up on the allegations in a report to be presented as early as Friday to its 35-nation board, two diplomats told The Associated Press.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei expressed optimism a month ago when he announced that Iran agreed to review intelligence collected by the U.N. agency, just a few weeks after Tehran had declared the books closed on any attempt to look into its alleged nuclear-arms programs.

"By the end of May we will be in a position to get the explanation and clarification from Iran" about the allegations, ElBaradei said then, describing Tehran's apparent change of heart as a "positive step."

But the diplomats said Iran had again rejected the evidence presented by agency officials as bogus and refused to hold further discussions or allow U.N. experts to check into the charges.