HU'S THE BOSS: Hu Jintao and Vice President Xi Jinping received almost unanimous support from the National People's Congress delegates. They were running unopposed
China's legislature re-elected Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) president yesterday, giving him a second five-year term as leader of the world's most populous country. It also returned Hu as head of the Central Military Commission, the body overseeing the armed forces.

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To the villagers who survived the My Lai massacre and many of the Americans who fought in the Vietnam War, all the anniversaries of the atrocity are important.

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'MANDATE': Despite taking a beating from the opposition in recent elections, Abdullah Ahmad acknowledged the country's problems and promised to fulfill his responsibilities
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has said he would not step down despite calls to quit, but promised change in his administration after its humiliating election performance.

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Afghan poppy farmers are some of the richest in the country, so poverty is not a big factor driving drug production in Afghanistan, which last year produced 93 percent of the world's opium, a UN report said.

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Former British prime minister Tony Blair yesterday urged the world's heaviest polluters including the US and China to agree to binding emissions cuts, saying failure to act on global warming would be "unforgivably irresponsible."

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A South Korean biotechnology professor agreed to retract two papers on anti-aging technology published in international science journals after the institute discovered he fabricated data, officials said.

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CLOSE TO HOME: Police found nine-year-old Shannon Matthews hidden in the pull-out drawer of a bed in an apartment less than a kilometer from her own home
A nine-year-old British girl who was feared dead after missing for 24 days was found by police alive and well on Friday -- hidden in the base of a bed with her suspected abductor lying next to her.

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Conservatives were on course yesterday to win legislative elections in Iran, but with their reformist rivals retaining a foothold in parliament despite the mass veto of candidates before the vote.

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Jordanian Christians are up in arms over the activities of foreign missionaries in the conservative Muslim kingdom, which is rich in biblical sites, including the spot where Jesus was baptized.

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Austria called on Friday for the immediate release of two nationals seized in Tunisia by an al-Qaeda-linked group, and refused to negotiate after an ultimatum given by the kidnappers.

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EU leaders on Friday condemned Israeli plans to build hundreds of new homes in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, and called on Israel to act swiftly to keep peace efforts alive.

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SECULAR STRUGGLE : The Constitutional Court has been asked to ban the Justice and Development Party, the prime minister, president and 69 others
Turkey's chief prosecutor on Friday accused the country's president and prime minister of undermining secularism and moved to ban them from politics and to prohibit their Islamist-rooted party.

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INTERROGATION: The Pentagon alleged that Afghan Muhammed Rahim, who was caught last year, knew of or was involved in al-Qaeda attacks against coalition forces
The Pentagon on Friday disclosed the capture of an Afghan national who helped arrange al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's escape from Tora Bora in the mountains of Afghanistan in late 2001.

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dared the US on Friday to put Venezuela on a list of countries accused of supporting terrorism, calling it one more attempt by Washington to undermine him for political reasons.

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Farmers fighting for the release of their imprisoned leader took four Belgians, their Guatemalan guide and a boat operator hostage on Friday, Guatemala's national tourist agency said.

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FROM A DISTANCE: A member of Trinity church for two decades, Obama said Reverend Wright was his pastor but had never been his political adviser
In the handful of years Senator Barack Obama has spent in the national spotlight, his stance toward his pastor has gone from glowing praise to growing distance to, as of Friday, strong criticism.

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US and Japanese astronauts late on Friday entered for the first time a newly installed Japanese module as engineers restored power to a Canadian-made robot that is key to future work in building the International Space Station (ISS).

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