TENSIONS: Phnom Penh said the charges against the ex-Thai prime minister were ‘politically motivated,’ while Bangkok threatened to tear up their extradition pact
Cambodia yesterday rejected Thailand’s request to extradite Thaksin Shinawatra, deepening a rift over Phnom Penh’s appointment of the fugitive former Thai prime minister as an economic adviser.

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The cone-shaped Mayon Volcano in the central Philippines, which killed scores in an eruption 16 years ago, shot up an ash plume yesterday, prompting hundreds of nearby residents to evacuate in case it blows again.

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Male factory workers in China who got very high doses of a chemical that has been widely used in hard plastic bottles had high rates of sexual problems, researchers reported yesterday.

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For years, Japanese kayak guide Michiru Sakai has shown tourists around coral reefs off Okinawa island — and impressed on them why locals so bitterly oppose plans for a new US military base.

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‘BLACK WIDOW’: Kanae Kijima stands accused of defrauding would-be husbands aged 27 to 80, and staging their deaths as suicides or accidents
When police discovered the body of Yoshiyuki Oide slumped on the back seat of his rented car near Tokyo this summer, they quickly assumed he had killed himself.

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‘RED LINES’: A court ruling against the ‘Guardian’ newspaper is part of a wider media crackdown to silence dissent in Iraq, the Journalists Freedom Organization has said
The court ruling on Tuesday in which the Guardian was ordered to pay the Iraqi prime minister damages of 100 million dinar (US$87,000) is part of a wider crackdown against media outlets designed to discourage scrutiny of public officials, one of the country’s leading journalism bodies said.

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Kneeling in front of an electricity box grappling with a mass of wires, Walter Khumalo is on the front line of an intensifying battle between South African suppliers and those trying to steal power.

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POLITICAL GAMBLE: Analysts and diplomats doubt the election will proceed in January in a sign that President Mahmoud Abbas may have been bluffing to woo Hamas
Voter registration for a Palestinian election failed to get under way as scheduled on Tuesday, adding to signs that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas might be bluffing about a make-or-break vote in January.

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High in the Alps an Austrian ski resort has found an unlikely source of early season snow: Israel.

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Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, set to go on trial this month, won backing on Tuesday for a radical justice reform that could clear two prosecutions hanging over him.

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HONORING THE FALLEN: A lieutenant-general said that the memorial service held for Fort Hood victims was similar to those held to honor those who die in combat
US President Barack Obama held emotional meetings at Fort Hood, Texas, on Tuesday with relatives of the 13 victims of last week's shooting rampage as an inquiry examined whether vital warning signs had been missed.

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Elected last November on a wave of optimism, US President Barack Obama now finds himself governing an increasingly pessimistic country in recession while muscling through Congress a healthcare reform overhaul and weighing whether to commit more US troops to the eight-year-old Afghanistan war. [ FULL STORY ]

Rescue workers on Tuesday tried to reach survivors of floods and landslides unleashed by late-season storms, as common graves were dug around the country to handle the growing death toll that now stands at 152.

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A judge made Michael Jackson’s longtime attorney and a music executive the executors of his estate on Tuesday, giving them broad powers to run the late pop star’s affairs despite objections from his father.

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A Samoan diplomat filed a federal lawsuit against immigration officials who charged him last year with falsely claiming to be a US citizen and kept him in Missouri for more than three months.

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CHALLENGES AHEAD: The economist was picked by the president after the Senate ousted former PM Michele Pierre-Louis for failing to reduce poverty
Lawmakers overwhelmingly gave final approval to Jean-Max Bellerive as Haiti’s new prime minister on Tuesday, the sixth person to hold the post since 2004.

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