RETURN: Back in South Korea, one of the Christian volunteers freed by the Taliban said that they went to Afghanistan to `share the love we have received'
Nineteen South Koreans freed by Taliban captors returned home to loved ones' tearful embraces yesterday, expressing sorrow for two in their group who were killed in Afghanistan and apologizing to the nation for causing trouble.

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Blind and elderly, Sibani Kar, who was found unconscious last month in the streets of India's Kolkata where she had been begging, is hoping for peace before she dies.

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`A CANCER': Afghanistan's vice president said the only solution is aerial spraying to destroy poppy crops, since opium production has doubled in the last two years
Britain's battle against the drugs trade in southern Afghanistan has been a total failure, the country's vice president said yesterday.

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The US and North Korea resumed nuclear weapons talks yesterday, with the chief US negotiator hoping to nail down progress achieved on the first day.

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UN REGISTER: A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Beijing would resume providing the world body with basic data on its arms sales
China will take steps to increase the transparency of its military operations, reporting expenditures to the UN and resuming updates about its arms sales, an official said yesterday.

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DISMISSED: The comments from both top military officers come at an embarrassing time for the British government, which has tried to soothe reported tensions with the US
The British backlash over the US handling of post-invasion Iraq grew yesterday as another military commander blasted Washington's "fatally flawed" policy.

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Pakistan's government is still interested in seeking a power-sharing deal with former prime minister and key opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, an official said yesterday, after Bhutto said months of talks with the government were at a standstill.

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Afghan authorities said yesterday they had detained four Pakistanis on suspicion of helping insurgents build bombs, as new blasts killed three soldiers and wounded at least a dozen people.

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An intense power struggle has broken out among the top ranks of Thailand's military over who should succeed the nation's junta leader, General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, when he retires at the end of this month.

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AFP, KATHMANDU

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`DR. GARLIC': The South African president has stood by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, the target of condemnation over her unorthodox views
South African President Thabo Mbeki hailed his embattled health minister as a heroine and likened critics to "wild animals," causing new dismay among AIDS activists demanding the dismissal of a woman dubbed Dr. Beetroot for her promotion of food as a remedy for the disease.

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Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday replaced the head of the elite Revolutionary Guards force, in a surprise move at a time of mounting tension with the West.

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QUARTET: French deputy prosecutor Jean-Michel Bourles said some 30 detonators had also been unearthed along with an explosive device packed with some 500g of pentrite
French and Spanish police on Saturday foiled a car bomb plot by Basque separatist group ETA, netting its alleged top bombmaker and three colleagues in what analysts termed a major blow for ETA.

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END OF AN ERA: The senator who has represented Idaho for more than 25 years resigned at the behest of fellow Republicans and will concentrate on his legal options
Senator Larry Craig resigned on Saturday over a scandal following his arrest for soliciting sex from an undercover police officer in an airport bathroom, bowing to pressure from fellow Republicans worried about dimming their election prospects for next year.

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Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis seemed to be heading serenely towards re-election on Sept. 16 until last week, when fires tore through forests, killing more then 60 people and throwing his government's reflexes into question.

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Hundreds of shaggy men descended on Brighton, southern England on Saturday to vie for top marks in this year's World Beard & Mustache Championships.

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GOODFELLAS GETS REAL: The trial has included descriptions already appearing in Hollywood mobster films, leaving jurors to unravel `the history of organized crime'
When Chicago's biggest mob trial in years got under way, prosecutors urged jurors to throw out any notions they had picked up from The Sopranos or The Godfather.

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More than two dozen Colombian prisoners arrested three years ago in an alleged plot against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez were freed in a goodwill gesture he hopes will help facilitate a prisoner exchange in Colombia.

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Gunmen in Jamaica killed seven people, including four women and a member of the governing party on Saturday, in what police said was political violence ahead of today's general election.

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■ UNITED STATE
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