SOGA SAGA: The former American soldier, who allegedly defected to North Korea in 1965, will travel with his wife, former abductee Hitomi Soga to Japan for medical aid
Japan will bring an accused US Army deserter to Tokyo for medical treatment this weekend even though he is wanted by Washington on desertion charges, an official said yesterday.

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The 15th International AIDS Conference ended with a sense of "relief" yesterday, with stark divisions evident between the world's political and medical establishments and the millions who suffer in silence with the killer virus.

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More than 70 young children were killed, some burned beyond recognition, when a fire raged through a school in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu yesterday, police said. The fire also left dozens injured.

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Canada has the Trans-Canada Highway. Brazil has the Trans-Amazon. Germany has the Auto bahn, and Russia now has the Trans-Russian. This summer, from westernmost Tsaganuur to Halhyn Gol in the east, road crews are working to add another to the list, the Mongolian Millennium Highway.

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UNEASE: Speculation ran rampant about the prime minister's standing within his own party as Labour lost one seat and held on to another by the skin of its teeth
Prime Minister Tony Blair suffered a fresh electoral setback yesterday, when his governing Labour Party lost one parliamentary seat to an anti-war party and narrowly avoided defeat in another constituency.

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The UN General Assembly was to take up yesterday a draft resolution demanding that Israel obey a World Court ruling and tear down its West Bank wall, but diplomats say said a vote may not come until next week.week. Arab states want broad support for the resolution drafted by Palestinian UN observer Nasser al-Kidwa.

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PUTSCH: In 1944, hundreds of conspirators attempted to kill the Fuehrer. They failed, and many paid with their lives, but now their country is ready at last to give them thanks
Germany is gearing up for a major state ceremony next Tuesday to honor a group, led mainly by aristocratic army officers, which nearly succeeded in killing Nazi leader Adolf Hitler at his Wolf's Lair compound in 1944.

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Snowball fights in July. Mulled wine instead of wine coolers. Thermostats set on high. Spring has come and gone, fall approaches -- and Europeans from Oslo to Budapest are still waiting for the summer.

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Libya agreed to open a corridor for food aid and other UN humanitarian supplies to help about 1.2 million people displaced by the Darfur conflict in western Sudan.

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SENATE REPORT: Riggs Bank was concluded to have approached the Chilean dictator in 1994 and not reported on his accounts when required
A respected US bank discreetly helped former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to hide millions of dollars over an eight-year period, even after he was arrested in London in 1998 and a court froze his assets, a US Senate report said on Thursday.

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HOSTAGE: The US and Australia criticized the Philippines as it prepared to withdraw its force in Iraq, warning that Manila couldn't buy immunity
The Philippines said it would begin pulling troops out of Iraq yesterday to save the life of a Filipino hostage despite calls by the US and other allies not to bow to the demands of the kidnappers.

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SYMBOL OF RESISTANCE: US Marines withdrew from the Iraqi city after a three-week siege failed to restore order, and now it has become an icon from Palestine to Libya
Through Web sites, headlines and graffiti, the Arab world is celebrating the people of Fallujah as victors over a superpower.

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Another security breach at Los Alamos National Laboratory prompted the lab to halt all classified work on Thursday while officials conducted a wall-to-wall inventory of sensitive data.

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US economic aid could only flow to countries that have agreed not to surrender Americans to a world court for prosecution for war crimes, under a measure passed by the House of Representatives.

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■ Singapore
`Sex and the City' ban ends
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