HUMAN TRAFFICKING: Condoleezza Rice said Taiwan was one of a handful of countries that were making `major improvements' in combating people-smuggling
By Charles Snyder
The US has removed Taiwan from a watch list for human trafficking in view of the country's "significant efforts" to tackle the problem over the past year, an annual report released by the US Department of State said on Tuesday.

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MAKING AN EXCEPTION: The `rice bomber' is a `criminal of conscience' who focused attention on the plight of farmers and should be let out of jail, a TSU lawmaker said
By Flora Wang
A proposal to grant an exemption to a man known as the "rice bomber" as part of a proposed amnesty bill for people serving prison sentences of up to one year gained support across party lines in the legislature yesterday.

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Suspected al-Qaeda insurgents yesterday destroyed the two minarets of the Askariya Shiite shrine in Samarra, authorities reported, in a repeat of an attack last year that shattered its famous Golden Dome and unleashed a wave of retaliatory sectarian violence that still bloodies Iraq.

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FIERCE FIGHTING: More than 50 people have died in three days of vicious gunbattles, with the armed wing of Hamas claiming control over `most of the positions'
Hamas pushed an offensive against Fatah yesterday after assuming control over northern Gaza in vicious battles that left the government teetering and the territory on the verge of civil war.

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Indonesian police yesterday said they captured a leader of the Southeast Asian terror network blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings and a string of other devastating attacks in recent years.

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