CHINESE IMPORTS: A TV program claims scientists found concentrations of formaldehyde up to 900 times above safety levels
New Zealand launched an investigation into Chinese garment imports yesterday after children's clothes from China were found to contain dangerous levels of formaldehyde, officials said.

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Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has played down the discussions between President Pervez Musharraf and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in an interview on Sunday. Aziz said any power-sharing deal would depend on the results of general elections later this year rather than on any previous agreement.

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RAID: Christina Meier was set free soon after appearing in a video in which she was shown being prompted to speak and asking German authorities to work for her release
Afghan police rescued a German aid worker who was snatched while dining with her husband at a restaurant in the capital, and arrested four suspected kidnappers in the sting operation yesterday, officials said.

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Asia-Pacific countries accounted for 90 percent of people affected by natural disasters around the world since 2000, the region's emergency management chiefs were told yesterday.

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A South Korean businessman-turned-politician won the conservative opposition's presidential primary yesterday, cementing his position as a front-runner ahead of the December election race against liberals aligned with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun.

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Unsafe sex has overtaken intravenous drug use as the primary cause of new HIV infections in China, suggesting that AIDS is spreading from high-risk groups to the general population, state media reported yesterday.

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TOUGH TALK: Mari Alkatiri said the reported seizure by soldiers of two flags was provocative and accused them of intimidating supporters
East Timor's ex-prime minister Mari Alkatiri yesterday called for Australian troops deployed in the restive nation to return home, accusing them of a lack of neutrality.

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SKIRMISHES: Activists fanned out to a handful of new locations around London yesterday to spread their message against global warming beyond the airport
Six people were injured and three arrested on Sunday night after clashes between police and climate change protesters near Heathrow airport. No disruption of the airport or major roads was reported, but skirmishes between more than 1,600 police and some 1,400 protesters continued into the night.

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`LIABILITY': The country's controversial health minister has been accused of hiding her drinking problem to obtain a liver transplant and of robbing patients in the 1970s
South African Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has been vilified as an accomplice to genocide for failing to provide treatment for the millions of people with HIV. She has been the subject of international ridicule for promoting garlic and vitamins as an alternative to AIDS drugs. And she has survived it all.

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The EU cut off vital funding to a Gaza power plant, forcing it to shut down the last of its generators and darken tens of thousands of Palestinian homes.

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Blessed with clear waters and a high concentration of great white sharks, this sleepy fishing town has become the self-proclaimed capital of cage-diving -- plunging underwater in a sturdy metal basket for a close-up look at one of nature's greatest predators.

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Israel sent approximately 50 African migrants, many reported to be Sudanese refugees from war-torn Darfur, back across the border to Egypt late on Saturday night, a move that drew the condemnation of Israeli human rights advocates when it became known on Sunday.

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NO MORE TROOPS: When asked what units will fill the void in the coming spring if any need to be replaced, officials give a shrug of the shoulders or a palms-up gesture
Sapped by nearly six years of war, the US Army has nearly exhausted its fighting force and its options if US President George W. Bush decides to extend the Iraq buildup beyond next spring.

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Rescue teams in Peru's shattered earthquake zone were heading home yesterday, as search operations were replaced by stepped-up aid efforts and security patrols against looters.

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IN THE DOCK: Lieutenant Colonel Steven Jordan was in charge of interrogations, but instead he devoted his time to improving living conditions for US soldiers
Lieutenant Colonel Steven Jordan, the only military officer charged in the prisoner abuse scandal at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail, went before a court martial yesterday in Fort Meade, Maryland.

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An immigration activist who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year to avoid being separated from her son has been deported to Mexico, the church's pastor said.

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French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner met leaders from Iraq's bitterly divided communities yesterday, as Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki urged Paris to support his embattled government.

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Authorities in the Cayman Islands imposed a curfew and evacuated tourists as the British territory braced for a brush yesterday with Hurricane Dean -- a powerful storm leaving a trail of destruction across the Caribbean.

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■ CHINA
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