TERROR ALLEGATION: A federal court ruled that the government's decision to cancel Mohamed Haneef's visa on character grounds was technically incorrect
An Australian court yesterday overturned the government's decision to revoke the visa of an Indian doctor cleared of links to the failed terrorist attacks on London and Scotland in June.

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Prayers for strong winds look set to become a major component of Beijing's Olympic preparations after a traffic-reduction trial failed to shift the smog that hangs over the city.

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SAFETY IGNORED? : Relatives question why the Huayuan Mining Co did not evacuate its workers, while two other mines in the area shut down because of weather concerns
Families of more than 180 miners trapped in flooded coal mines in eastern China and presumed dead lashed out at one of the companies yesterday, complaining it had ignored safety warnings to close.

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An international aid group is appealing for US$5.5 million in aid to help North Korea recover from the recent floods that wreaked havoc on the country.

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A military offensive in the southern Philippines may prompt al-Qaeda-linked militants to sow terror elsewhere in the country, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo warned yesterday, saying she has ordered the military and police to bolster security.

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FORCES: The military, which has toppled four governments in four decades, has said it considered the secular system under threat and vowed to defend it
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned the influential army to keep out of politics, following the start of a presidential election that a former Islamist is set to win, Anatolia news agency reported yesterday.

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RESPONSE: The family of a five-year-old boy who was raped in a garage reacted angrily to reports that the convicted pedophile had been prescribed Viagra
A French doctor has admitted prescribing Viagra to a convicted pedophile charged with raping a young boy, in a case that prompted French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday to announce tough new measures for child sex offenders.

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A young woman who escaped a year ago after being held for more than eight years in a dingy cell said on Monday she considered her captor a "poor soul" and once cynically told him she would dance on his grave someday.

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RELIEF: The show will be headlined by British singer-songwriter Sami Yusuf, who sings an Islamic style often performed a cappella
A Muslim Live8 is to be staged at Wembley, London, to highlight the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, it was announced on Monday.

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Academics from around the world have protested to Germany's federal prosecutor about the arrest and detention of a Berlin sociologist who is accused of associating with a terrorist group -- apparently on the basis of his academic work.

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A detained Iranian-American academic accused of conspiring against the government has been released from a Tehran prison after a hefty bail was posted for her, a top judiciary official said yesterday.

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COMPROMISE: US Senate Armed Services Committee head Carl Levin said the Maliki government was unable to work independently of religious and sectarian leaders
The chairman of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, after completing a two-day tour of Iraq, said on Monday that the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki should be voted from office because it has proved incapable of reaching the political compromises required to end violence there.

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`THREE AMIGOS': Riot police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators at a leaders' summit aimed at harmonizing trade and security between the US, Canada and Mexico
Thousands of protesters on Monday clashed with riot police at this log cabin inn near Ottawa, decrying a summit of North American leaders on bolstering security and economic ties.

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Officials on Monday indefinitely suspended efforts to save six coal miners as a group of mining experts concluded that the area where the men were trapped was structurally unstable and would probably collapse again.

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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday launched a massive US$3 billion initiative to tackle high levels of violence in a country that records more than 40,000 homicides per year.

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Aid groups yesterday struggled to distribute food, water and blankets to survivors of a devastating Peruvian earthquake that killed more than 500 people last week, as aftershocks continued to rattle the population.

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■ CHINA
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