SHIFTING ALLIANCES: Facing pressure from the US to cleanse a tribal area of al-Qaeda members, the Pakistani president could not refuse the Taliban's offer to drive them out
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has found unlikely new allies in pro-Taliban tribesmen who are driving foreign al-Qaeda militants from Pakistan's tribal belt for the first time, officials said.

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A daytime curfew was slapped on a part of southern Nepal yesterday after at least 26 people were killed and dozens injured in brutal clashes between an ethnic group and Maoists, officials said.

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MUST LEAVE: With the issue of unfreezing Pyongyang funds in Macau unresolved, the world will have to wait as some delegations are called upon to play other roles
Talks on North Korea's nuclear program will likely take a recess, an official close to the negotiations said yesterday, after discussions stalled this week over Pyongyang's frozen funds.

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Police in Hong Kong are investigating elaborate devices found embedded in the turf at a world-famous horse track apparently designed to shoot poison darts at the animals at the start of a race.

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Prolonged drought along the Yangtze has reduced China's longest river to record lows, triggering a debate over the Three Gorges dam's ability to generate power, state media said yesterday.

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SECURITY: Authorities, armed with water cannons, were determined to keep order for the event, which was used to show support for jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan
Tens of thousands of Kurds marked their biggest festival, Newroz, on Wednesday with celebrations across Turkey marred by sporadic violence and clashes between police and militants.

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ROYAL NAVY: A nuclear-powered submarine in the Arctic Ocean was conducting a joint exercise with the US when something went wrong with an oxygen generation candle
Two British sailors were killed in an explosion aboard a Royal Navy nuclear-powered submarine in the Arctic Ocean. An injured crewmember was evacuated to a hospital in Anchorage, officials said on Wednesday.

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The Italian defense ministry fears that a "dangerous precedent" was set when journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo was freed in exchange for five Taliban fighters, press reports said on Wednesday.

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A top EU envoy met with a senior member of the new Palestinian government, joining the US in ending a year of ostracism and leaving Israel increasingly isolated in its demand for a total boycott of the Hamas-Fatah coalition.

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Britain, France and the US made clear they would not agree to a 90-day "time out" on all sanctions against Iran that was proposed by South Africa, a suggestion the British ambassador called "totally perverse."

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CRACKDOWN: The inter-Shiite fighting in the southern city erupted one day after US and Iraqi forces launched a major search of a Sunni district of western Baghdad
Gunmen loyal to two rival Iraqi Shiite parties clashed in the southern city of Basra yesterday, prompting security forces to order a clampdown.

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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was unharmed but ducked behind the podium after a rocket landed near Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office yesterday while the two men were speaking to reporters at a news conference.

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LITERARY SHINER: While the reason why two Latin American writers fell out may never be known, there are signs that their 30-year feud may be near an end
With one right hook an epochal friendship was destroyed and a rift opened between two of Latin America's most celebrated authors.

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It was part science class, part policy wonk paradise, part politics and all theater as former US vice president Al Gore came to Congress on Wednesday to insist that global warming constitutes a "planetary emergency" requiring an aggressive federal response.

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The mystery creator of the Orwellian YouTube ad against US presidential candidate Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is a Democratic operative who worked for a digital consulting firm with ties to rival Senator Barack Obama.

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The New Mexico Spaceport Authority now estimates a state-backed spaceport will cost US$198 million, down from the previous estimate of US$225 million.

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■ China
Protest halts rail traffic
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