CALL TO ACTION: With the world still reeling from the devastation wrought by the tsunami, the UN said countries must learn from the tragedy to mitigate future ones
In the wake of an ocean wave that horrified an unready world, hundreds of UN conference delegates yesterday got down to the business of finding ways to give man more of an edge in an age-old battle with the worst of nature.

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Their plight has touched hearts around the world: children left parentless and homeless, their futures uncertain and bleak.

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The Labor Party's Mark Latham yesterday bowed to public pressure and resigned as both leader of the opposition and as a member of the Australian federal parliament.

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IMPURE PROFESSIONS: One man's plight reveals the country's ongoing problem with `Burakumin' -- a reviled caste due to their death-related jobs
After more than four decades of fighting the Japanese justice system, Kazuo Ishikawa has learned to read and is out of prison, but he still feels the shackles on his wrists.

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CLOSE WATCH: China's security officials are keeping guard outside activists' homes to prevent any activities commemorating the deposed party leader's death
Dissidents and civil rights campaigners yesterday said the government is watching them more closely after the death of deposed Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang (趙紫陽), preventing them from holding commemorative activities.

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RETALIATION: Lebanese officials said two women were injured in the attacks, which took place after guerrillas blew up an Israeli bulldozer in a disputed area 6km from the border
Israeli warplanes twice bombed suspected Hezbollah targets along the border in southern Lebanon on Monday, wounding two women, after guerrillas blew up an Israeli bulldozer in a disputed area near the frontier, Lebanese officials said.

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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, under growing pressure to rein in militants, on Monday ordered his security forces to prevent attacks against Israel and investigate a deadly shooting of Israeli civilians last week.

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PARADING POWER: Authorities are keen to avoid a disaster similar to last year's, in which 251 people died after a stampede; and then there's terrorism to consider as well
Saudi security forces trained specially for the annual hajj have been deployed to the kingdom's holy sites as some 1.8 million pilgrims converged on Mecca for the pilgrimage which started yesterday.

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A mother of two was jailed for five years on Monday after becoming the first woman in the UK to be convicted of using the drug Rohypnol to sedate male victims before stealing from them.

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SEEKING UNITY: The US president says that he wants to achieve big things, not least among them overcoming the rancor his first term caused with his controversial policies
US President George W. Bush said he has "a big agenda in mind" for his second term that begins this week and that four years is going to be a short time to meet all his goals.

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The US has slapped new sanctions against seven Chinese companies as well as firms from Taiwan and North Korea, charging they may have helped Iran in its quest for weapons of mass destruction and more modern ballistic missiles.

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LIFE OR DEATH: Global poverty can be cut in half by 2015 and eliminated by 2025 if US, Japan and other rich countries more than double aid, a UN report says
Global poverty can be cut in half by 2015 and eliminated by 2025 if the world's richest countries -- including the US, Japan and Germany -- more than double aid to the poorest countries, according to a UN-sponsored report.

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Forty-two years after The Girl From Ipanema was composed in a Rio bar, an obesity study has sparked a furious debate in Brazil about the state of the nation, and the expanding waistlines on that famous stretch of sand.

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Condoleezza Rice pledged yesterday to work to mend ties with US allies frayed by the war in Iraq.

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Virginia Mayo, the stunning blonde actress who brought beauty and romance to films of the 1940s and 1950s with such co-stars as James Cagney, Bob Hope, Gregory Peck, Danny Kaye and Ronald Reagan, died at a nursing home in suburban Thousand Oaks. She was 84.

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■ Singapore
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