DEADLY EXPERIENCE: China's ability to rapidly mobilize manpower and resources for relief efforts is due in part to its long history of dealing with natural disasters
Within 24 hours of China's deadly quake, some 20,000 troops converged on the disaster area to help dig out the dead and injured, and military planes and trucks ferried in another 30,000 reinforcements.

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By Shih Hsiu-chuan and Ko Shu-ling
The government yesterday pledged a donation of NT$2 billion (US$65 million) to victims of the Sichuan earthquake via the Red Cross in China.

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TRAPPED: As rescuers ferried the bodies of young victims on doors salvaged from the ruins of one school, 200 stayed buried elsewhere under two other schools
The high school students were settling in to afternoon arts and humanities classes when the massive quake struck.

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China has declined Australia's offer to provide an expert search and rescue team to help find survivors of a massive earthquake, citing logistical problems, an Australian official said yesterday.

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‘SECOND WAVE’: Although the death toll could exceed 100,000, poor logistics and the junta’s refusal to allow foreign aid workers are jeopardizing relief efforts
Another powerful storm headed toward Myanmar’s cyclone-devastated delta yesterday, where so little aid has arrived that the UN warned of a “second wave of deaths” among more than 1.5 million survivors.

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Sri Lanka pressed ahead with air and ground attacks yesterday against Tamil Tiger rebels in the north, the defense ministry said, as the prime minster ruled out any ceasefire.

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Three pro-democracy activists, including a US citizen, were handed jail terms of up to nine months on terrorism charges in a trial held under tight security on Tuesday.

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XENOPHOBIC ATTACKS: The ruling ANC slammed the attacks against foreigners as hate crimes, while more than 500 police were called in to contain the violence
Violent clashes continued between police and locals yesterday in Alexandra township, northeast of Johannesburg, after three days of xenophobic attacks, local media reported.

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The UN Security Council on Tuesday strongly condemned a rebel attack near Khartoum, warning against any retaliation and urging Sudan and Chad to implement a recent peace deal to suppress armed groups operating along their border.

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FATAL BOMBING: A van packed with explosives went off outside a Civil Guard station, killing one officer and forcing the evacuation of 40 people
A powerful car bomb detonated yesterday outside a police station in northern Spain, killing one officer and wounding four others in an attack blamed on the militant Basque separatist group ETA, police said.

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Kuwait began a three-day mourning period yesterday following the death of former emir Sheikh Saad Abdullah al-Sabah, and campaigning for Saturday’s general election was suspended.

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Aliens could be out there, and believing that the universe may contain extraterrestrial life does not contradict a faith in God, the Vatican’s chief astronomer said in an interview published on Tuesday.

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Police in Zimbabwe detained a group of Western diplomats for a brief period on Tuesday after the ambassadors traveled to rural areas to visit the victims of post-election violence.

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STAYIN’ ALIVE: The former first lady vowed to stay in the race for the Democratic nomination, but some think she is laying the groundwork for a possible exit strategy
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton celebrated her rout of Senator Barack Obama in West Virginia on Tuesday but it was a bittersweet victory colored by her Democratic rival’s daunting lead in the nomination race.

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Renowned rain forest defender Marina Silva resigned as Brazil’s environment minister on Tuesday, saying she was unable to protect the Amazon because she lacked political support to do her job.

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PRICEY PORTRAIT: Berlin-born Lucian Freud is one of the most important contemporary artists. His 1995 nude of a sleeping woman was bought by an anonymous buyer
A Lucian Freud life-sized nude sold for US$33.64 million at Christie’s art auction on Tuesday, the highest price ever paid at auction for the work of a living artist.

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Baghdad’s Sadr City district was largely quiet yesterday, as Shiite fighters appeared to largely respect a ceasefire agreement, while across town a car bomb targeting a Sunni lawmaker killed one person and wounded 20 more.

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Venezuela announced plans on Tuesday to ship oil to Portugal in exchange for food products and other goods that have been running short in the South American country.

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Robert Rauschenberg, who died overnight on Tuesday at his home in Florida, aged 82, was a towering and prolific 20th century artist who developed a unique and compelling style.

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■ SOUTH KOREA

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