FINGER LICKIN`: The prime minister, who said he used to work for KFC, promised he would pay anyone who dies from eating well-cooked chicken produce 3 million baht
Thailand's prime minister yesterday urged people to eat chicken and eggs as the country's billion dollar export industry dwindles, pledging 3 million baht (US$75,000) of his own money in compensation if anyone dies from eating well-cooked chicken products.

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First bird flu, then SARS, now bird flu again. Hong Kong's chicken vendors can't seem to catch a break.

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ASCENSION: She can speak four languages and is a trained opera singer but it's Dariga Nazarbayeva's veiled pretensions to her father's throne that have the rumors flying
She's a media mogul, she has a doctorate in political science and she learned to sing opera in secret because her father -- Kazakhstan's president -- disapproved.

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Singapore's founding father said the ultramodern city-state he built is every bit a First World nation -- but still lacks the "graces of a civilized society," such as music, culture and the arts.

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Japanese lawmakers early yesterday approved sending troops for a humanitarian mission in southern Iraq, a decision stalled until the last minute by concerns over the level of violence there.

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IN TATTERS: The conviction of a former prime minister seen as President Jacques Chirac's potential successor, Alain Juppe, has left the governing party in disarray
In a blow to French President Jacques Chirac, a court convicted his ally and potential successor, former Prime Minister Alain Juppe, in a party financing scandal on Friday and disqualified him from office, rocking the governing right and the race for the French presidency in 2007.

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BOOMING BUSINESS: With marijuana downgraded in Britain, police crack down on Internet vendors making a killing by offering fresh, high-quality supplies by post
It will arrive next day by registered delivery in an unassuming padded envelope, promises the blurb on the British Web site. Inside, vacuum-sealed, will be 7.5 grams of AK47 -- high-grade cannabis sativa.

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ESCALATING FIGHTING: Thousands of refugees have fled Sudan's Darfur region as skirmishes between government forces and rebels increase
Sudan's army has captured a town from rebels in the western region of Darfur and seven other rebel camps in the area, state radio reported on Friday.

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The Bush administration will ask Congress to boost spending on missile defense by US$1.2 billion next year and nearly double funding to modernize the Army in the US$401.7 billion US military budget for 2005, according to Pentagon documents released on Friday.

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Three US soldiers and 10 Iraqis were killed in three attacks in northern Iraq yesterday, most of them in a car bombing in Mosul which left part of a police station a smoldering ruin, as the country braced for more violence on the eve of a major Muslim holiday.

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DEAD END: Conservatives' exclusion of reformists from elections has caused a worsening political crisis in Iran
Iran's embattled president admitted Saturday he had failed to reverse a move by hard-liners to disqualify thousands of candidates from forthcoming elections, as his government warned that the polls cannot go ahead and members of parliament vowed they were poised to resign.

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QUESTIONABLE INFORMATION: Disclosures about US and British intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq reveal a belief that Saddam's character alone justified going to war
The rush of experts and politicians to the microphone this week to finally admit that US and British intelligence estimates of Iraqi weapons holdings were wrong underlines the fact that the invasion of Iraq was not conjured from thin air in the few months before the war began.

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Israel's UN ambassador on Friday launched a rare criticism of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for issuing a "vague" statement on a Palestinian policeman who killed 10 Israelis in a suicide bombing.

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■ Afghanistan
Civilians killed in airstrike
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