HOMEWARD BOUND: Sending shock waves through political circles, deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced that he would return from exile tomorrow
Thailand's Election Commission voted yesterday to disqualify the speaker of parliament's lower house for electoral fraud, issuing a ruling that could dissolve the People's Power Party (PPP) that leads the coalition government.

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Detained Khmer Rouge jailer Duch wept yesterday for the victims of Cambodia's 1970s genocide as he re-enacted his alleged crimes for a UN-backed tribunal at the regime's most notorious killing field, a court official said.

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The US' huge military aid to Pakistan has come under sharp scrutiny with allegations that as much as 70 percent of US$5.4 billion in assistance has been misspent.

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Pakistan said it had lifted a ban on YouTube yesterday after the Web site removed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, adding that an earlier worldwide outage sparked by its actions was unintentional.

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`A SAD DAY': Critics say that former president Moshe Katsav only got a slap on the wrist last year for the alleged rape and sexual harassment of female office workers
Israel's highest court yesterday upheld a much-criticized plea bargain that allowed former Israeli president Moshe Katsav to escape rape charges and a possible prison term.

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South Africa will allow elephants to be killed in an attempt to control a burgeoning population, the government said, ending a 13-year ban and setting a trend that could embolden other southern African nations confronting the same dilemma.

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TAXI FARE AFFAIR: The parliamentary chief has also been criticized for favoring Labour Party speakers while in charge of mediating debates
Britain's parliamentary speaker has found himself at the center of a heated argument over his lavish expenses claims, including taxpayer-funded taxi rides that his wife used for shopping trips.

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A Nigerian election tribunal upheld the president's declared victory in last year's disputed election, according to a ruling announced yesterday.

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Pythagoras, Euler and Fermat may not be nervously twitching in their caskets just yet, but the uniqueness of humankind's mathematical abilities has taken yet another knock from the animal kingdom. Fish are able to count to four, according to experiments which involved giving them the option of joining shoals of different sizes. Their numerical ability is on a par with that of monkeys, dolphins and children aged between six months and 12 months.

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Dmitri Medvedev, Russia's first deputy prime minister and the presumptive successor to Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Monday committed the Kremlin to long-term support for Serbia against an independent Kosovo.

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IN DEEP: The military was reportedly 25km inside Iraqi territory, but the US said there were no signs Ankara was straying from a promise the strikes would be limited
Turkish troops were engaged in fierce clashes with Kurdish militants in northern Iraq as they closed in on one of the main separatist camps, security sources said yesterday.

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Senator John McCain said on Monday that he needed to convince the American people that the troop escalation in Iraq was working and that US casualties there would continue to decline. If he did not, he said, "I lose" the election.

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DIFFERENT WAR: With satellite pictures indicating that looting is on the decrease, British forces hope to provide help at cultural locations and leave a constructive legacy
The British Museum and the British Army have held talks about a new initiative aimed at restoring, as far as it ever can be, Iraq's shattered cultural heritage.

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Three undercover police detectives on trial over the death of an unarmed man killed in a hail of gunfire on his wedding day were reckless and trigger happy, prosecutors said.

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A team of German and Peruvian archeologists said they discovered the oldest known monument in Peru: a 5,500-year-old ceremonial plaza near Peru's north-central coast.

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