DAY TWO: With the nation beginning a long holiday weekend, authorities advised motorists to scrap plans to travel to popular tourist spots, as many roads are closed
Six people were confirmed dead and three missing yesterday as wild storms continued to lash Australia's east coast, smashing boats, flooding roads and cutting power to 200,000 homes.

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Afghanistan and Pakistan edged closer to agreement on how to return more than 2 million Afghan refugees to their homeland after they fled to Pakistan 27 years ago, an official from the UN refugee agency said.

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RISKY STRATEGY: Facing international condemnation over a plan that some say risked sparking a full-blown civil war, Rajapakse called for an immediate inquiry
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse ordered the country's police chief to explain the eviction of hundreds of ethnic Tamils from the capital, in an apparent attempt to quell mounting outrage over the expulsions.

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A bomb exploded in front of a crowded teashop in restive southern Thailand, killing one woman and wounding 28, police and a hospital official said.

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Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi remarried behind closed doors yesterday before heading to the cemetery to pay respects to his late first wife.

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RUDE WELCOME? : The US leader will have to face two demonstrations as the Greens have opted for a rally while more radical activists will hold a march
Thousands of police were deploying yesterday morning in downtown Rome ahead of US President George W. Bush's meetings with the pope and Italian officials.

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The UN envoy trying to promote a political solution to the four-year conflict in Darfur said the road to negotiations has become even more complicated because of the increasing number of rebel groups.

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Israel has put out secret feelers to Syria, but has not received a response, Israel's deputy prime minister confirmed yesterday.

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DISAGREEMENT: Talks were held against a backdrop of a dispute between Russia and the G8 over Kosovo, the province the UK prime minister had helped to liberate
British Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted differences with Russia would remain unresolved for a long time after one hour of very frank but wholly fruitless talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the close of the G8 summit in the Baltics on Friday.

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European governments failed to agree on Friday on how to salvage their troubled satellite navigation system, Galileo, adding to doubts about their ability to continue to finance "grand European projects" like the European rival to the US' Global Positioning System.

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PENTAGON POINT MAN: The administration decided to replace the Marine general as the US' top military officer rather than risk a Senate confirmation struggle over Iraq
The Bush administration attempted to wipe the slate clean on the Iraq war on Friday and chart a new way forward with the surprise announcement that it was replacing General Peter Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

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Colombia must pay US$7.8 million in damages to relatives of 12 judicial workers killed in a 1989 massacre by army-backed paramilitaries, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered.

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A Republican senator slugging a Democratic senator gave the Alabama Legislature a national black eye, much like what happened eight years ago when the southern state's lieutenant governor urinated in a jug, discreetly, at the front of the Senate chamber.

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US courts have seen the number of sex offense cases involving juvenile offenders rise dramatically in recent years, a review of national statistics found, and treatment professionals say the offenders are getting younger and the crimes more violent.

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It will be a week that Paris Hilton -- and a celebrity-obsessed nation -- won't soon forget.

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Offerings of water, honey and rum were to be poured along the shores of South Carolina and New York yesterday, honoring the millions of Africans who died crossing the Atlantic during the slave trade.

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■ CHINA
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