SILENCED: Air force jets dropped 12 bombs on the Tamil Tigers' radio station just an hour before it was to broadcast the traditional Hero's Day address by its rebel leader
A handicapped female suicide bomber blew herself up at Sri Lanka's social services ministry in the heart of Colombo yesterday, killing a government employee in a failed attempt to assassinate a government minister, the military said.

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A Chinese warship dropped anchor off Tokyo yesterday in China's first military visit to Japan since World War II, symbolizing improving ties between the two Asian giants.

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CONTACT: North Korea's spy chief will make a rare trip to South Korea, while the US envoy will visit Pyongyang for talks on ending North Korea's nuclear arms program
North and South Korea struggled yesterday to resolve differences over creating a joint fishing zone around their disputed sea border at a second day of rare defense talks in Pyongyang.

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China yesterday rejected threats made by a Sudanese rebel group against its peacekeeping mission in Darfur.

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CIVILIAN: The ceremony was held on a field hockey ground, as hundreds of people watched an unsmiling Musharraf review the military ranks
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf stepped down from his powerful post as Pakistan's military commander yesterday, a day before he was to be sworn in as a civilian president as part of his long-delayed pledge not to hold both jobs.

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UNREST: The French president visited a wounded police officer and met security ministers after protests appeared to be dying down on the third night of violence
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, visiting police officers injured in riots, vowed yesterday to take a tough line against protesters after a sharp drop in the nightly violence.

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It's been a harrowing journey: from repression in China to war in Afghanistan and four long years at Guantanamo Bay as a US captive in the war on terror.

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DONATIONS: The British prime minister said the Labour Party will undergo its third funding overhaul in five years and return ¥600,000 in illegal cash gifts
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised on Tuesday to return more than ?600,000 (US$1.2 million) in illegal cash gifts from businessman David Abrahams and ordered another major reform of the way the Labour Party monitors its big money donations.

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When it comes to truly deplorable writing, not even death, it seems, lets you off the hook. This year's Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction award has gone to the late Norman Mailer for a description of oral sex in his final novel, The Castle in the Forest, in which a male member is likened to a "coil of excrement."

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JOINING FORCES: A top Iraqi Sunni cleric yesterday called for Sunni Arab militants allied to US forces in the fight against al-Qaeda to be integrated into regular forces
A woman wearing an explosives belt blew herself up near a US patrol northeast of Baghdad -- a rare female suicide bombing that wounded seven US troops and five Iraqis, the US military said yesterday.

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`WHITEWASHING': A judge had ruled that the death of photojournalist Zahra Kazemi after being arrested was an accident, not the result of being tortured by police officers
Iran's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a new investigation into the 2003 death of a jailed Iranian-Canadian photojournalist who a judge ruled had died from an accidental fall despite earlier findings that she was beaten to death in custody.

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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hit back yesterday after a former nuclear negotiator he accused of spying was cleared of espionage, calling for the publication of documents exposing the official.

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Looking thrilled rather than fearful, around 800 Iraqi refugees boarded a fleet of buses on Tuesday for the first official convoy back to Baghdad since the daily carnage of sectarian violence and car bombs sent them here a year or more ago.

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US President George W. Bush told his guests at the Middle East peace conference that they were off to a strong start, with an agreement between Israeli and Palestinian leaders to restart peace talks immediately.

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■ AUSTRALIA

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