HALTED: Harsh weather has aggravated customary winter outages by blocking coal deliveries while icy roads hampered migrants heading home by bus
Power cuts blamed on ice and unusually heavy snowfall yesterday left about 100,000 people waiting for trains in the key southern Chinese rail hub of Guangzhou, state media reported.

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Human rights activists Hu Jia (胡佳) and his wife Zeng Jinyan (曾金燕) recently offered tea to guests with whom they discussed their hopes that the Beijing Olympics would help democratize China.

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REBUFFED: State Department counterterrorism chief Dell Dailey said the Bush administration was displeased with 'gaps in intelligence' being received from Pakistan
The top two US intelligence officials made a secret visit to Pakistan earlier this month to seek permission from Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for greater involvement of US forces in trying to ferret out al-Qaeda and other militant groups active in the tribal regions along the Afghanistan border, a senior US official said.

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NOT WANTED: Ex-marine Paddy Ashdown gained a reputation as a no-nonsense operator during his time in Bosnia, pushing through a raft of sensitive reforms
Paddy Ashdown, the international community's former envoy to Bosnia, should not be the UN's new representative in Afghanistan, the country's ambassador to the world body has told the BBC.

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Fierce clashes between troops and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels left 12 insurgents and a soldier dead in northern Sri Lanka, lifting the death toll from a day of fighting to 40, the military said yesterday.

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HARASSING THE HUNT: On Tuesday, Greenpeace's Esperanza clashed with the whaling fleet but the activists failed to prevent the Japanese factory ship from refueling
A Greenpeace vessel trying to disrupt Japan's annual whale hunt in waters near Antarctica has run low on fuel and is returning to port, the group said.

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A group of Afghanistan's Islamic clerics welcomed on Saturday a court's decision to sentence a reporter accused of blasphemy to death.

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RIFT VALLEY: The former UN chief said that 'gross and systematic' human rights abuses had taken place as violence stymied his efforts at mediation
Kofi Annan was to push yesterday for peace and talks in Kenya as mediation efforts hit further hurdles after a death tolls from ethnic clashes in the country's west rose to 81.

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In its first public criticism of Gaza's Hamas rulers, Egypt complained of "provocations" during the Gaza-Egypt border crisis and said more than three dozen members of its security forces were hospitalized as a result.

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Jacob Zuma, who survived rape and corruption charges to become the president-in-waiting of South Africa, has harsh words for Kenya and Nigeria, where recent elections were marred by alleged fraud, violence and disputed results.

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REVERSAL OF FORTUNE: The one-time Mugabe friend is accused of flouting currency exchange laws. Some say Mugabe may make moves to seize the tycoon's assets
The notorious property tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten has been arrested in Zimbabwe on charges of breaking the troubled country's currency exchange laws and possessing pornography.

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A passenger train derailed in Turkey early yesterday, killing at least nine people and injuring dozens of others, the prime minister's office said. Media reports put the toll higher.

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LOOK SOUTH: Speaking at a summit in Caracas, the Venezuelan president said US 'imperialism is entering into a crisis' and Latin America should invest in its own region
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged his closest Latin American allies to begin withdrawing billions of dollars in international reserves from US banks, warning of a looming US economic crisis.

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accepted a handful of coca leaves from his Bolivian ally Evo Morales and chewed them during a summit meeting on Saturday, saying "coca isn't cocaine."

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Brazilian model Angela Bismarchi will dance nearly nude ahead of a 300-person drum corps in next month's Carnival parade, hoping her sculpted beauty as a "percussion queen" will lead her samba group to the championship.

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The job posting said "freelance," and the employer was looking for a killer applicant.

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PRIORITIES: A plan to preserve the endangered jaguar has been rejected because it would require gaps in a wall along the border with Mexico
The US' determination to halt illegal immigration across its border with Mexico is set to claim an unusual victim -- the jaguar.

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Being ignored is bad enough for anyone. But when you are president of the US it must be doubly humiliating. Yet Democrats are too busy fighting each other to mention him and Republicans fear to be associated with his record.

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■ PAKISTAN

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