`IMPRACTICAL EFFORTS': The territory's Catholic Church said it supports a non-binding referendum on democracy in Hong Kong, but Beijing isn't likely to listen
Hong Kong's government has sought to check growing calls for a referendum on democracy in the Chinese territory as a report yesterday said the Catholic Church had backed a territory-wide poll.

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A series of powerful tremors yesterday rattled a central Japanese region still reeling from last month's earthquake, slightly injuring eight people just as the last schools shut by the tragedy reopened.

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A group of 144 academics upped the pressure on Thailand's prime minister yesterday by releasing an open letter demanding he apologize for the deaths of 78 Muslim protesters piled on army trucks by security forces.

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GROWTH SPURT: The impoverished communist country is hoping to give its citizens a more nutritious diet, increasing its national stature, literally
During long years of war and severe poverty in Vietnam, milk and meat were true luxuries only the rich could afford.

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Hoping to avoid a UN showdown, Iran and the EU's three big powers reached a preliminary agreement over Tehran's nuclear program, Iran's chief negotiator said.

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Yoga's ability to calm the inner self might go even further than was previously thought.

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An explosion blew the door off a Muslim school in a southern Dutch town and shattered windows across the street yesterday, Dutch television reported. There were no reports of injuries.

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CRACKDOWN: Journalists who write about women's issues have been arrested, while increasing numbers of political Web sites and blogs are being blocked
Iran has continued its crackdown on journalists, with two arrests in the past week, and has moved against pro-democracy Web sites, blocking hundreds of sites in recent months and making several arrests.

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MANDATE: After winning a clear majority in the election, the Bush administration will forge ahead with its income tax reform plans despite a record budget deficit
Buoyed by a clear-cut election victory, US President George W. Bush is pledging to make permanent the sweeping tax cuts of his first term and to simplify the nation's tax laws.

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SPIN: The president's lead strategist said Bush's victory came from a focus on stopping gay marriages and an attack on Kerry's `flip-flopping' on the issues
Karl Rove, the so-called architect of US President George W. Bush's re-election, took a victory lap around US talk shows Sunday, relishing the victory he had stage-managed from the shadows, and saying Bush will seek a ban on gay marriage in his second term.

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MISTAKEN IDENTITY: A nuclear engineer from Connecticut was arrested overseas and accused of being a CIA agent, only to be detained later in the US
As a Muslim and frequent flyer, businessman Syed Maswood is used to being wrongly suspected as an Islamic terrorist. He's not used to being called a US spy.

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The families of military personnel in Iraq, including those serving with the Black Watch in its controversial redeployment, will this week will launch an anti-war campaign reinforcing calls for the withdrawal of British troops.

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Each day, several shackled detainees are marched into a double-wide trailer in this prison camp to argue before three anonymous military officers that they do not belong here.

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■ China
Boy takes mother to court
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