END OF AN ERA? : The conservative Australian prime minister tried to put a brave face on things yesterday, but Kevin Rudd seems likely to take power
Besieged Australian Prime Minister John Howard looked headed for defeat in a weekend election as new opinion polls yesterday tipped center-left rival Kevin Rudd to end 11 years of conservative rule.

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The top US military commander in the Pacific said on Thursday he was "perplexed and concerned" by China's last-minute decision to deny a US aircraft carrier entry to Hong Kong for a previously scheduled port visit.

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Workers clearing rocks from a landslide in central China discovered a bus underneath the rubble yesterday, three days after the accident, and authorities said the 27 people believed to be on board and two others missing were unlikely to be found alive.

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VIOLENCE: A minister described the explosions, which were reported outside courtrooms in Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad, as terror attacks
Near-simultaneous blasts outside courts in three north Indian cities left at least six people dead yesterday in what a senior government official said were terrorist strikes.

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THE ELEVENTH HOUR: The parliament was scheduled to meet at 1pm yesterday, literally just 11 hours before the end of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud's term
Lebanon's parliament failed to convene due to an opposition boycott in its latest attempt yesterday to elect a successor to President Emile Lahoud just hours before he was set to leave office, putting the country in a potentially explosive political vacuum.

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Lawyers for the widow of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko have filed papers with the European Court of Human Rights alleging the Russian state's complicity in his poisoning and accusing it of failing to investigate the crime.

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The French choreographer Maurice Bejart has died aged 80, after a career of pushing the limits of contemporary dance for over half a century, while making ballet accessible to the widest possible audience.

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RESULTS: Dedication, professionalism and politeness are just some of the factors that will be taken into account under the remuneration system
As an avid soccer fan, the Pope's right-hand man, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, knows better than most that in the end it is the result that counts. No one, though, had expected Benedict XVI's new secretary of state to be quite so goal-minded as to bring performance-related pay to the Vatican. But he has.

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Evidence of a growing pre-teen drug problem in Britain emerged on Thursday with research showing that one in seven children have tried cannabis before the age of 13.

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TARGETING PET-LOVERS: Two explosive devices went off simultaneously at a popular market yesterday, sending body parts flying and leaving bystanders stained in blood
Two bombs hidden in a box of birds exploded simultaneously yesterday, killing 13 people and wounding 57 at a popular pet market in central Baghdad, police and witnesses said, describing the deadliest attack in the Iraqi capital in two months.

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The government knew Mexico's Gulf coast was a disaster in waiting long before three rivers surged out of their banks, flooding nearly every inch of the low-lying state of Tabasco and leaving more than 1 million homes under water.

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A 15-year-old girl robbery suspect was put in a jail cell with more than 20 men, and for one month was raped relentlessly and forced to have sex for food, human rights groups representing the just-released girl said on Thursday.

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POLITICAL HORIZON: Olmert warns maintaining the status quo would have `deadly results' for Israel ahead of a peace meeting planned in Annapolis next week
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned in comments published yesterday that maintaining the status quo with the Palestinians would have "deadly" results for Israel.

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Immigration authorities are swamped in new bureaucratic backlogs resulting from an unanticipated flood this summer of applications for citizenship and for residence visas, officials said.

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■ INDONESIA

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