`QUIET DIPLOMACY': Fiji's interim leader expelled the ambassador for interfering in domestic affairs in a move Helen Clark dismissed as being `completely unacceptable'
Fiji's military leader yesterday expelled New Zealand's ambassador in an escalation of post-coup tensions between the two countries that prompted a threat of a "strong reaction" from Wellington.

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China criticized the US' "Cold War" thinking after US President George W. Bush attended the opening of a memorial for those killed in communist regimes.

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The Dalai Lama renewed pleas for Tibet's autonomy after meeting with New Zealand's prime minister at an Australian airport yesterday, the latest in a string of meetings with dignitaries that have drawn condemnation from China.

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The remains of a giant, birdlike dinosaur as tall as the formidable tyrannosaur have been found in China, a surprising discovery that indicates a more complicated evolutionary process for birds than originally thought, scientists said.

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BOMB ATTACK: Walid Eido, his son, two bodyguards and six other people were killed in the explosion of a remote-controlled car bomb in Beirut on Wednesday
Angry mourners cried out against Syria yesterday at the funeral of prominent Member of Parliament (MP) Walid Eido, whose death in a Beirut bomb blast was the latest in a string of killings the ruling coalition has blamed on Damascus.

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NEW BEGINNING: Even though one expert said Jan Grzebski had not been in a `true coma,' everyone wants to know about the man who woke up after 19 years, and his wife
It is the stuff of fairytales and happy endings, the story of a Polish railway worker who woke up to a new world of plenty after falling into a "coma" 19 years ago when Poland was still communist.

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Hamas fighters overran one of the rival Fatah movement's most important security installations in the Gaza Strip yesterday, and witnesses said the victors dragged vanquished gunmen from the building and executed them in the street.

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Egyptian President Hosni Muba-rak's ruling party has won the vast majority of seats in this week's elections for the upper house of parliament, shutting out the opposition Muslim Brotherhood in polling critics derided as flawed.

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Kurt Waldheim, the former UN secretary-general and president of Austria whose reputation was tarnished by revelations over his Nazi past, died yesterday at the age of 88, his family said.

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A man arrested when authorities seized more than 2 tonnes of cocaine bound for Africa at a Venezuelan airport claims to be a diplomat and a relative of Congo's president, officials said on Wednesday.

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`PYROTECHNIC DEVICES': Police found 16 gunpowder-filled devices, forcing the evacuation of 1,400 students at Wayne Valley High; no suspects have been apprehended
A high school was evacuated during the last full day of classes after a total of 16 gunpowder-filled devices with fuses were found in two lockers on Wednesday morning, officials said.

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A handful of Sunni mosques were attacked or burned yesterday, but curfews and increased troop levels kept Iraq in relative calm a day after suspected al-Qaeda bombers toppled the towering minarets of a prized Shiite shrine.

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Heart disease likely killed Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer, authorities said, while an opposition leader in Jamaica's parliament called for the firing of the pathologist who set off a global murder investigation by concluding he had been strangled.

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The Oklahoma state parole board refused on Tuesday to block the execution of a death row inmate who is dying of cancer.

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Police arrested some 60 suspected gang members in a sting operation in and around Toronto on Wednesday.

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`NOT URGENT': Three of the Russian navigation computers were out of commission, but NASA officials were confident the problem could be resolved
The Russian computers that help keep the International Space Station in orbit were out of commission for the second day, a glitch that could imperil the US$100 billion orbiting laboratory if it is not corrected.

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday that his mentor and friend Fidel Castro has "recovered his fastball," but needs more time to warm up before returning to the field.

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■ INDONESIA
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