SRI LANKAN STRIFE: The explosion came as passengers were getting off the bus at a military checkpoint. A rebel spokeswoman denied involvement in yesterday's attack
A bomb ripped through a bus as it stopped at a military checkpoint in eastern Sri Lanka yesterday, killing at least 16 civilians and wounding 25 others, the military said, blaming separatist Tamil rebels.

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Cambodia's ruling party won an overwhelming victory in weekend local elections, maintaining its firm grip on power, according to party projections announced yesterday.

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Hindus, Buddhists and Taoists will hold special prayers for greater religious freedom amid fears their rights in this Muslim-majority nation are increasingly under threat, an official said yesterday.

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The number of people in China who can't read has shot up to 116 million, wiping out years of hard-won gains against illiteracy as rural poor leave the farm and school for work in the city, state media said yesterday.

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GETTING ALONG: Newspapers heralded the Maoists inclusion in a new government, but others warned them to clean up their behavior
Nepal's Maoists were under renewed pressure yesterday to put an end to their violent practices, the day after five former rebels were sworn into the Himalayan nation's new interim government.

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After panda porn failed to spark amour, Thai zoo authorities turned yesterday to artificial insemination in the hope of impregnating their lone female giant panda.

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An avalanche swept through a village in northern Pakistan and 11 people were missing and feared dead a day after 26 people were killed in another avalanche, police said yesterday.

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LEAVE NOW: Rejecting a ceasefire between the Ethiopian military and clan elders, the administration told residents in disputed areas to leave or risk being targets
Backed by Ethiopian forces, the fragile Somali government called on civilians in the capital yesterday to leave their homes in disputed areas before a new military offensive against an Islamic insurgency.

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REHABILITATION: Riyadh claimed that the program had seen an 80 percent to 90 percent success rate in weaning extremists off the `takfiri' ideology
Saudi Arabia claims to be winning its "war on terror" with the help of a program of re-education and rehabilitation for hundreds of repentant al-Qaeda militants once led by Osama bin Laden.

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The world's top climate scientists gathered in Brussels yesterday to hammer out the summary of a massive report that predicts dire consequences from global warming, especially for poor nations and species diversity.

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Catholic Church officials yesterday reached a key milestone in the drive to make Pope John Paul II a saint, closing an investigation into his life and handing over a dossier detailing the purported miraculous cure of a nun who prayed to him.

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CIVILIANS: Many pupils at a nearby primary school and other local residents were wounded when a suicide bomber blew up the truck outside a police station
A suicide bomber blew up a truck near a primary school and police station in Iraq's northern oil city of Kirkuk yesterday, killing 12 or 13 people, police officials said.

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GHOST TOWN: Saba al Bor, a once thriving, working-class town with about 50,000 Shiite residents, is a lesson in how quickly things can change for the worse in Iraq
It was midafternoon in this dusty, sandstone-colored town, most stores and houses were padlocked and no cars were on the road. In the town center, a group of young men sat in the shade of a plastic tarpaulin next to a stand with sodas and snacks, and stared phlegmatically at nothing much.

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A video purportedly showing the beheading of a drug cartel hit man appeared on a popular video-sharing Web site, and its makers called on Mexicans to kill more members of the gang.

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Presiding over a company with a market value of US$143 billion apparently gives Silicon Valley's most famous billionaires a good sense of humor.

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Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Rudy Giuliani are close in the polls, raising millions of dollars each and strutting across the campaign trail. Again.

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■ CHINA
Tour guide goes on rampage
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