TIME TO DECIDE: A consultant for Human Rights Watch said today's election boils down to whether voters still support deposed leader Thaksin Shinawatra
Thailand was poised yesterday for the first election since last year's bloodless coup, under the close watch of the military and the looming shadow of deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

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HIV-positive women in the northern Indian state of Punjab were forced by technicians at a medical institute to have sex in return for tests and medicines, a report said yesterday.

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North and South Korea agreed to expand a cross-border cargo rail service to passenger transportation next year, the Unification Ministry said yesterday.

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CONTROVERSIAL 'RESEARCH': While praising Japan for halting plans to harpoon 50 humpbacks, the Australian foreign minister called on the nation to end all whaling
Australia and some 30 other countries, including the EU, lodged a diplomatic protest to send "a very powerful signal" of international displeasure over Japan's whaling program, officials said yesterday, despite Tokyo's suspension of its plans to kill humpbacks.

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The living goddess likes chewing bubble gum.

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CHURCH AND STATE: Following a two-week delay, the state's official Catholic church installed its third bishop in a month, with approval from the Vatican
China's official Catholic church has installed a new Vatican-approved bishop, the third to be ordained in a month, state media and a Rome-based religious news agency reported yesterday.

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North Korea has told a US diplomat it will soon declare its nuclear programs under an international disarmament agreement, a news report said yesterday.

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For 24 hours on Friday, the leader of Pakistan's lawyers movement was a free man.

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HEIGHTENED RISK: Fourteen suspected Islamic extremists are said to have planned to help free Nizar Trabelsi, who was convicted of plotting to bomb a Belgian air base
Belgian police detained 14 sus-pected Islamic extremists, and the government said they were plotting a jailbreak to free an al-Qaeda prisoner convicted of planning to attack US military personnel.

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After five days of exhaustion and hardships, Muslim pilgrims were saddened to see the annual hajj come to a close on Friday, ending what for many is a spiritual high point of their lives.

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Six French aid workers on Friday insisted they were trying to rescue Darfur orphans as their trial for kidnapping in Chad began, the same day a journalist who had accompanied the mission told French radio the workers had been secretive while in Chad about plans to spirit the children to France.

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OUT OF SIGHT: Disappearing from the political radar for weeks at a time has led some to question just what President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has up his sleeve
Now you see him. Now you don't. Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika falls out of sight for weeks at a time, and was notably silent when suicide bombs tore through two important buildings in Algiers, one housing UN offices. That rang alarm bells about his health and questions about his political plans for a country he has sought to stabilize.

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Russia's foreign minister on Friday signaled that his country would accept the EU replacing the UN in Kosovo only with the blessing of Serbia and the UN Security Council, where Moscow holds veto power.

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BETTER OFF?: Workers who cannot prove they are employed legally say that their removal will have a negative impact on the country's economy
Illegal immigrants in Arizona, frustrated with a flagging economy and tough new legislation cracking down on their employers, are returning to their home countries or trying their luck in other states.

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he has plans in place to receive hostages released by Colombian rebels, predicting it will be a "delicate operation."

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Brazil announced on Friday it will create a landholder registry and send 700 more federal police to the Amazon River basin in a new effort to monitor and prevent deforestation in the environmentally sensitive region.

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American Eric Volz went into hiding on Friday after hastily leaving Nicaragua, where an appeals court overturned his conviction and 30-year-sentence in the slaying of his Nicaraguan girlfriend.

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CONTROVERSIAL: Although academics say they seek to help the military minimize civilian casualties in war, critics fear the partnership could damage universities
The US military is frequently criticized for not doing enough to reduce civilian casualties or to stabilize the places it is fighting to protect. Yet what happens when the outside experts who can offer such advice are condemned for doing exactly that?

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NASA has delayed the launching of a mission to Mars by two years, to 2013, because of an undisclosed conflict of interest involved in one of two final proposals, officials said on Friday.

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■ VIETNAM

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