SHOWDOWN: The protesters want elections to take place according to the 1997 Constitution that the coup leaders abolished after their takeover last September
Supporters of ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra demanded yesterday that the coup leaders who drove him out resign, and called for elections to be held immediately.

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TIRED: A dozen people were charged earlier in the month in the US with plotting to overthrow the Laotian government, but most Hmong have given up the fight
For many in this squalid settlement, the name General Vang Pao elicits memories of a time when the Hmong people fought encroaching communism in Laos as favored allies of the US during the Vietnam War.

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An Indonesian housemaid who claimed she was beaten by her Malaysian boss tried to escape by climbing out the window of a 16th-floor apartment using a rope made from pieces of cloth, news reports said yesterday.

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SHOWERS: Some 2,000 opposition workers and lawyers welcomed the suspended chief justice amid chants of ''Go Musharraf go'' as he arrived in Faisalabad yesterday
Thousands of lawyers and opposition activists chanting slogans against Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf welcomed the nation's suspended chief justice yesterday as he arrived in an eastern city to address the latest rally opposing military rule.

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SCANDAL: The owners of primitive brick-making operations ran them like prisons, relying on fierce dogs and beatings to deter escape attempts
Police have detained 168 people linked to a human trafficking network supplying slave labor to mines and brick works in northern and central China, state media reported yesterday.

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Vietnam's first human death from bird flu in more than a year has highlighted growing complacency among farmers in fighting the virus that remains endemic in the country, specialists said yesterday.

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South Korea welcomed North Korea's invitation to UN nuclear inspectors, saying yesterday it is a first step toward its neighbor's eventual disarmament, but Seoul sounded cautious over Pyongyang's timetable for shutting its nuclear reactor.

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STAYING RIGHT: As the Union for a Popular Movement already controls the legislature, it would be the first time since 1978 that a Franch ruling party has retained its majority
French President Nicolas Sarkozy looked set to win a sweeping mandate for his ambitious program of reforms yesterday, as the French went back to the polls to elect a new National Assembly, the lower chamber of parliament.

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CHANGE OF TACK: The investigation into a recent honor killing relied on initiatives more often used to tackle organized crime, such as the use of covert investigative techniques
Dedicated teams of senior prosecutors are to be deployed in the UK's honor killing hotspots in the wake of the failings exposed this week by the case of a young Kurdish woman murdered by her family.

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LETHAL LOGGING: Monarch butterflies rely on the Mexican forest canopy to be their `umbrella and blanket' that protects them from the winter rainfall and freezing cold
One of the world's greatest wildlife spectacles is under threat because environmental projects to protect the monarch butterfly are failing, a leading expert has warned.

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Climate change is partly to blame for the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, where droughts have provoked fighting over water sources, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a newspaper editorial.

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It's senior prank season, and this was the plan for the last day of classes last Monday at Hendrick Hudson High School, not far from the Indian Point nuclear plant in Westchester County, north of New York City:

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged all EU members to show willingness to compromise on the future of the bloc's constitution at a tricky upcoming summit.

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DEVASTATING ACCOUNT: In a documentary, former assistants to the British prime minister allege that it was clear that postwar reconstruction plans were incomplete
British Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed to commit British troops to battle in Iraq in the full knowledge that Washington had failed to make adequate preparations for the postwar reconstruction of the country.

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A senior British Army surgeon said troops injured in the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan faced delays of several hours before being transported to field hospitals, newspapers reported yesterday.

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RACE HEATS UP: From the steamy, to the bizarre and the downright embarrassing, the marathon grind of the 2008 White House campaign is mercifully rich in variety
When a racy brunette in a bikini gyrates in a steamy video, declaring a crush on US Democratic hopeful Senator Barack Obama, it's clear that the hoopla surrounding this election is going to be like nothing that came before.

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The skulls, bones and tattered clothing of a team of Iraqi martial arts experts have been found more than a year after they disappeared, presumed kidnapped, in an al-Qaeda stronghold west of Baghdad.

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The Iraqi capital sprung to life yesterday after a four-day curfew to thwart violence after a provocative attack on a Shiite shrine to the north, as a top US general acknowledged that security forces have full control in only 40 percent of the city.

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The US Army general who investigated the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal has said he was forced into retirement by civilian Pentagon offiscials because he had been "overzealous."

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