HISTORIC ELECTIONS: Opposition parties hoped that an appeal to voters of all races would help it keep the ruling coalition from a two-thirds majority
Malaysia's ruling coalition made an all-out push yesterday on the eve of elections to counter a resurgent opposition that hopes to deny it a two-thirds majority for the first time.

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A woman's body snatched from a hearse in a family dispute involving differences between ethnic Europeans and indigenous Maori in New Zealand was buried yesterday in the correct cemetery, police said.

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COALITION: Opposition parties are gaining power following last month's elections, but they still lack the two-thirds majority needed for impeachment
Parties opposed to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf have won the allegiance of 11 lawmakers who contested last month's polls as independents, tightening their hold on the new parliament, the election commission said yesterday.

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GROWING THREAT: A top official warned of attacks by terrorists from Pakistan and Afghanistan affiliated with al-Qaeda rather than from homegrown terrorist cells
The government raised the national threat level on Thursday because of what it said was greater activity in Europe by professional terrorists from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

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A former councilor from Spain's ruling Socialist Party was shot and killed in the northern Basque region yesterday, the regional government said, two days before the country holds general elections.

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FRAGILE DEAL: The latest killings showed that politicians have a long way to go before resolving long-running land and tribal disputes exacerbated by the election crisis
Nine people were killed on Thurs-day in western Kenya, underlining the fragility of a landmark power-sharing agreement just as President Mwai Kibaki was urging parliament to back the deal.

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A Royal Air Force (RAF) base in eastern England has advised personnel stationed there not to wear uniforms while off-duty, fearing abuse from local residents opposed to Britain's military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said on Thursday.

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High food and oil prices have been swelling the ranks of the hungry since last summer, and the crisis may not end for several years, the head of the world's largest humanitarian agency said on Thursday.

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BACK-TO-BACK: The US military blamed al-Qaeda in Iraq for Thursday's combined roadside bomb and suicide attack that killed scores in a predominantly Shiite district
Family members yesterday mourned victims of a twin bombing in a packed Baghdad shopping district that killed at least 68 people and wounded 120, a grim reminder that Iraq's violence has slackened but not abated.

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US law enforcement officials said yesterday there was no connection between a letter to dozens of Congress members bearing the words "We did it'' and the bombing of a landmark Armed Forces recruiting station in New York City on Thursday.

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SECURITY CONCERNS: The US Defense Department has barred Google's map-making teams from its bases after images of Fort Sam Houston were posted on Street View
Google has complied with a request by the Pentagon to remove some online images from its street-level map service because they pose a security threat to US military bases, military and company officials said on Thursday.

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Some 300,000 people in Bogota and other major Colombian cities marched on Thursday in support of the thousands of victims of right-wing paramilitary groups and "state crimes."

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This tranquil community on the edge of Los Angeles has become a cursing-free zone.

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A former Argentine navy lieutenant wanted for his alleged role in a 1972 massacre of 16 leftists is now heading a medical personnel supply company that has contracts with the US Defense Department.

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■ AUSTRALIA

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