SEALED WITH A KISS: A recent exchange of letters between the leaders of the US and North Korea led Pyongyang to agree to follow through on its denuclearization promise
Responding to a recent letter from US President George W. Bush, North Korea agreed on Friday to follow through on its pledge to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, provided the US reciprocates by normalizing relations between the countries.

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Like a slithering red snake, the dirt road cuts through the jungles shrouding an endless row of hills.

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APPARENT SUICIDE: The 37-year-old unemployed suspect in Friday's shooting in a sports club in Sasebo was found dead in a church. He was a licensed gun owner
The suspected perpetrator of a shooting spree that killed two people in a southern Japan sports club was found dead at a nearby church early yesterday, apparently after having committed suicide, police said.

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An explosives-filled car blew up yesterday outside the offices of the Kabul police headquarters and city governor, killing at least five people and wounding several more, officials said.

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Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government survived a crucial budget vote on Friday, fighting off a strong opposition challenge that could have frozen an escalating military offensive against separatist rebels.

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Bird flu has resurfaced in parts of Asia, with human deaths reported in Indonesia and China and fresh poultry outbreaks plaguing other countries during the winter months when the virus typically flares.

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Negotiations in Nepal between former Maoist rebels and mainstream parties on resuscitating the Himalayan nation's stalled peace process have intensified, officials said on Friday.

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EASING THE TRANSITION: The EU said that it would delegate a team of police soon after Christmas to supervise an expected declaration of independence from Serbia
EU leaders decided on Friday to deploy a vast police mission to Kosovo as the Serbian province edges toward independence, a move that could fuel tensions with Russia.

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A mournful farewell to a top general slain in a car bombing turned on Friday into a rallying point for calls for Lebanon's deeply divided politicians to agree on a new president and end the country's worsening political crisis.

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END OF MANDATE: Human rights groups condemned the council's decision as an 'unacceptable compromise' made to appease the Sudanese government and its allies
The UN Human Rights Council dissolved a group of experts tasked with monitoring abuses in Darfur after demands from African countries to ease the political pressure on Sudan.

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Prominent liberal politician Grigory Yavlinsky, a candidate in numerous Russian elections since the 1991 Soviet collapse, will not run for president in the March 2 vote, his spokeswoman said on Friday.

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'SUSPICIOUS': Hector Febres, who faced life in jail for his alleged participation in Argentina's 'Dirty War,' was believed to have been a particularly fierce torturer
Police detained the wife and two grown children of a former coast guard officer who died mysteriously in jail amid a dictatorship-era human rights trial, hours after an autopsy found cyanide in his blood, a judge said on Friday.

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Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori on Friday downplayed the role a former spymaster accused of organizing a death squad played in his government, saying he never ceded power to Vladimiro Montesinos.

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Mexican lawmakers have postponed the approval of sweeping justice reforms until next year, delaying Mexican President Felipe Calderon's efforts to boost police powers in the fight against violent drug gangs.

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■ CHINA

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