HELP WANTED: US General John Craddock said in addition to increasing its forces, NATO could not succeed without cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan
Signs of a new spring offensive by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan have begun to emerge, but NATO commanders are still short more than 1,000 combat troops, despite repeated requests to allied nations, the top commander said.

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A roadside bomb fixed on a bicycle exploded yesterday in western Afghanistan killing two civilians and injuring 16 others, police and a health official said.

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Military-ruled Myanmar yesterday confirmed three more outbreaks of bird flu in Yangon, and urged people to report any suspicious bird deaths.

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Pakistan successfully test-fired an indigenously developed short-range nuclear-capable missile yesterday, the military said, ahead of peace talks with archrival neighboring India.

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China is to crack down on "blindly" using foreign architects to design major public buildings as part of a drive to stifle costly architectural extravanganzas, state media reported yesterday.

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Landslides triggered by days of heavy rains killed at least 32 people in eastern Indonesia yesterday. Scores more were feared dead, buried beneath the mud, officials said.

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ON THE BARRICADES: Some of those arrested and injured on Thursday were foreigners who joined the protests that began when police evicted 35 squatters
Violent clashes died out yesterday morning following a night of street clashes in Copenhagen during which protesters threw cobblestones at riot police and erected barricades with garbage containers which they set on fire along with at least a dozen cars.

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ETHNIC TENSIONS: The warning highlighted concerns among leaders and officials that impatience is growing among Kosovo's pro-independence ethnic Albanians
NATO's commander in Kosovo says the province's fragile security situation makes it imperative for politicians to resolve its future status quickly.

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Ethiopian government troops were scouring a remote and lawless region of the country on Friday night after five Britons with links to the Foreign Office were abducted by a gang of armed men.

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Two days before national elections, Estonia's president on Friday accused Russia of failing to confront the "barbarous" legacy of the Soviet Union's occupation of his country.

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PHANTOM OFFICIAL: The affair has led to calls for an inquiry into how the prime minister gave a prominent ministerial position to someone he had never met
Andre Kasongo Ilunga was the rising star of Congolese politics. Just 34, he had risen from obscurity to be appointed minister for foreign trade in Congo's first democratic government last month. Then, before he had even started work, he resigned.

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A photograph of Tony Blair as a long-haired, boater-wearing student was reproduced in a number of British newspapers and online yesterday, with focus on his less than prime ministerial hand gesture.

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BRUTAL: An operation was launched in one of the provinces surrounding Baghdad to track down an insurgent gang that kidnapped 14 policemen and slit their throats
Iraqi security forces launched an operation yesterday to kill or capture an insurgent gang that kidnapped 14 policemen and slit their throats, the interior ministry said.

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EX-PLAYMATE: With her coffin covered in a pink rhinestone-studded blanket, Anna Nicole Smith was dressed extravagantly in a designer gown surrounded by admirers
Her coffin covered in a pink rhinestone-studded blanket, Anna Nicole Smith was buried on Friday as she lived: extravagantly dressed in a designer gown, surrounded by a small cadre of competing admirers.

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Guatemala's head of criminal investigations was removed from his post on Friday and the country's second-highest ranking police official resigned, as part of an investigation into the grisly Feb. 19 slayings of three Salvadoran politicians and their driver.

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A small college in Ohio was thrown into mourning after a bus carrying the school's baseball team tumbled over the side of a highway overpass and slammed onto the pavement 9m below, killing four students, the driver and his wife.

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A woman accused of running a prostitution ring on Friday threatened to immerse Washington in a sex scandal by saying she was considering selling 13 years of phone records to raise funds for her legal defense.

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■ Philippines
Militant gunmen killed
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