CONSPIRACY THEORIES: Only 17 percent of Pakistanis who were surveyed said they suspected al-Qaeda or the Taliban was behind last month's killing of Benazir Bhutto
Nearly half of Pakistanis surveyed suspect that government agencies or government-linked politicians killed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, according to an opinion poll highlighting popular mistrust in the country's US-allied president.

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Top officials from Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal traveled for the first time to the regime's former stronghold yesterday to allay fears of mass arrests of former rebels.

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POPPY TALK: The former militant, who now heads a district in the world's largest poppy-growing region, thanked the US and Britain for help with anti-Soviet jihad
The US ambassador to Afghanistan flew to a previously Taliban-held town in the heart of the country's poppy-growing region and told the former Taliban commander now in charge there that Afghans must stop growing poppies.

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Prisoners detained by the US in Afghanistan on suspicion of links to terrorism have been able to communicate with their families via video link for the first time, the Red Cross said yesterday.

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A policeman died when a bomb he was carrying exploded in northeast Thailand near a house rented by a politician loyal to the ousted prime minister, police said yesterday, while a separate blast hit nearby.

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NOT ENOUGH TIME? : Victims complained that Ray Williams, who was released on the earliest date allowed by his sentence, was allowed to keep his ill-gotten funds
The man who headed Australian insurance giant HIH, which collapsed in the country's biggest corporate failure ever, apologized yesterday to victims of the crash as he walked free from a Sydney jail.

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Shanghai authorities suggested yesterday they might heed public opinion on plans to extend a magnetic levitation train through the city after weekend protests by residents fretting over possible radiation risks from the showcase project.

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South Korea's conservative president-elect said yesterday he was willing to meet North Korea's reclusive leader and promised the communist state major economic assistance if it abandons its nuclear ambitions.

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BELLICOSE RHETORIC: The US president is visiting allies in the Middle East and seeking their cooperation in dealing with the Iran problem before it is too late
US President George W. Bush was headed for regional powerhouse and close ally Saudi Arabia yesterday to rally support for his campaign to isolate archfoe Iran and for his Middle East peace drive.

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The leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah organization criticized US President George W. Bush on Sunday for accusing Iran of supporting militant groups in the region and calling them "terrorist," saying he was honored to be an enemy "of the Great Satan."

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Rival Kenyan political parties jostled for support yesterday ahead of a flashpoint re-opening of parliament amid the devastating crisis spurred by the disputed presidential election.

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Interpol announced on Sunday the resignation of its president, Jackie Selebi, South Africa's chief of police, who has been placed on extended leave on suspicion of corruption.

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WEIGHT OF THE PAST: While Germany's difficulties with immigrants are less serious than in other European countries, talking about the issue can cause problems
A brutal war of words has broken out between the two major parties here over violence committed by youths with immigrant backgrounds, and neither side is backing down.

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Britain could be engaged in Afghanistan for decades, British Defense Secretary Des Browne said in an interview published on Sunday.

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HEADING SOUTH: Though Hillary Rodham Clinton said she hoped the campaign would not focus on gender or race, she and Barack Obama have exchanged barbs
Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have become embroiled in racially tinged disputes as large numbers of black voters prepare to get their first say in the Democratic presidential campaign.

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TOGETHER AGAIN: Clara Rojas saw her son for the first time in three years at a Bogata foster home where caretakers had not known his true identity
After three years apart, recently released Colombian hostage Clara Rojas was able to embrace her young son, who was fathered by one of her guerrilla captors but taken away from her months after he was born.

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For many who lived through Vermont's not-so-civil debate making it the first state in the US to allow civil unions, the memories remain painfully fresh: hate mail, threatening telephone messages, tense public meetings.

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NATIONWIDE MANHUNT: Witnesses at a Shreveport, Louisiana, bus station reported seeing Marine Corporal Cesar Armando Laurean boarding a bus bound for Texas
The nationwide manhunt for a Marine wanted in the brutal slaying of a 20-year-old pregnant colleague who had accused him of rape focused on Louisiana and Texas after he was apparently seen at a bus station.

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SPARROW HAWK: Colom, an engineer, textile company manager and Mayan priest, called for `equality, cultural diversity and tolerance' -- and a crackdown on crime
Alvaro Colom was to take the oath of office as Guatemala's new president yesterday, promising to crack down on crime and alleviate poverty in one of the poorest and most violent countries in the Americas.

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■ INDIA

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