'FREE AND FAIR': While strong voter participation could bolster Pervez Musharraf's democratic credentials, powerful opponents could take many votes away from him
Pakistan's election campaign began in earnest yesterday, a day after former prime minister Nawaz Sharif dropped threats to boycott the ballot to protest the authoritarian rule of President Pervez Musharraf.

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South Korea's worst-ever oil spill spread along a pristine coastal region yesterday as the government came under fire amid charges it acted too slowly to limit the disaster.

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'WAVE OF ATTACKS': Afghan, British and US troops have been closing in on a Taliban-held town in the south of Afghanistan
US-led coalition troops conducted an airstrike on Taliban weapon smugglers in southern Afghanistan, as Afghan and NATO-led troops continued their siege of a contested town in the region, officials said yesterday.

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Opposition from the US and at least two major allies is likely to scuttle attempts to include emission reduction targets in a "roadmap" for future global warming talks, analysts said yesterday, as a UN climate conference entered its crucial final week.

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RALLY: Britain's role in the US-led invasion is deeply unpopular in Britain, and Brown has been much less enthusiastic about the UK's part than his predecessor
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown flew into southern Iraq to rally troops and confirm that Iraqi forces will take command of the last region under British control this month.

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Leaders of Europe and Africa headed home yesterday after a summit that failed to mask deep divisions despite pledges of an equal relationship, with a row on Zimbabwe highlighting the gulf between the continents.

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Colonel Muammar Qaddafi was to pitch his tent in Paris yesterday for an official visit that marks the Libyan leader's return to grace, after shedding his rogue image for that of trusted statesman ready to sign off on deals worth billions.

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UNPLANNED?: Relatives of the victims were happy Robert Pickton was convicted, but dismayed it was for second-degree murder. He faces trial for 20 more murder cases
A jury convicted a 58-year-old British Columbia pig farmer of murdering six women, handing him an automatic life sentence, but finding that the killings were not planned.

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Defying an opposition boycott, Bolivia's constitutional assembly approved a new charter yesterday that would empower the poor South American nation's indigenous majority and let President Evo Morales run for reelection indefinitely.

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Venezuelans awoke yesterday to President Hugo Chavez's latest measure to revolutionize their lives -- they were 30 minutes back in time.

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■ CHINA

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