TWIN BLASTS: One of the bombs in Lahore tore the facade from the seven-story Federal Investigation Agency building as personnel were beginning their work day
Police opened an investigation into twin suicide attacks in Pakistan's cultural capital that killed 24 people ahead of a transfer of power to followers of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, a top investigator said yesterday.

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STABLE CONDITION: Five classmates of a boy who died were hospitalized. Three children have died in two weeks, with the causes of death unknown
Hong Kong has asked one of its top scientists to study three child deaths over the past week amid a flu outbreak, the territory's health secretary said yesterday.

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Deposed Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra pleaded not guilty yesterday to corruption charges, in the first case assembled by military-backed investigators to reach court.

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South Korean President Lee Myung-bak called yesterday for beefing up the country's military and strengthening ties with the US to deter any aggression from North Korea.

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CLEAN ACT? : The foreign minister also reiterated promises that Beijing's fetid air would be transformed in time for the start of the Olympics in less than six months
China's foreign minister yesterday said human rights groups that cite the Beijing Games in their criticisms of the Chinese government were violating the Olympic charter.

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Chinese police fired tear gas to disperse a second day of protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa by hundreds of Buddhist monks demanding the region's independence, Radio Free Asia reported yesterday.

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DEEP SOUTH: Obama beat Clinton in Mississippi with 61 percent where half the Democratic electorate was black American. Exit polls showed a large racial divide
Senator Barack Obama beat Senator Hillary Clinton in Mississippi's Democratic primary, riding huge support from black Americans, as a nasty new race row rocked their White House battle.

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Guatemalan prosecutors ruled out amnesty on Tuesday for birth mothers who used false identities to surrender their babies to an agency where 46 children being adopted by US families were seized in a raid last August.

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A popular Croatian general who led a brutal operation that drove the Serbs out of eastern Croatia near the end of the Balkans War went on trial in The Hague on Tuesday for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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SPITTING SPITZER: If the governor, who investigated prostitution as attorney general, does not resign over the sex scandal, a poll shows voters want him to be impeached
New York Governor Eliot Spitzer faced growing pressure to resign yesterday after becoming entangled in a sex scandal linking him to a high-priced prostitute.

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Violence appeared to be on the rise in Iraq after a day that saw at least 42 people die -- numbers that harken back to the darker days of the country's sectarian battles that had eased over the past year.

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Ugandan President Yoweri Mu-seveni said rebels due to stand trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for rape, mutilation and murder will instead face justice in Uganda at the request of their victims.

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■ INDONESIA